Senseless
by Zynali
Summary: When Damon flirts with the wrong vampire, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. But maybe it was just what he needed? Takes place after 3x09, Damon/OC slash.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _I really didn't need a new story to work on, but this came into my head and demanded to be written. It was going to just be a smutty one-shot, but it also decided it wanted to be a whole story, although I think it will be shorter than my other stories (maybe seven or eight chapters?). I'm a little nervous about it since I've never written slash before, so feedback would be much appreciated (including constructive criticism)._

_This takes place after 3x09 "Homecoming," although I'm pretty sure this isn't the direction the show will go ;)  
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**Warning: **_This story contains male-on-male slash and is fully deserving of an M or even NC-17 rating. Don't read if you don't like that sort of thing ;)_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own _The Vampire Diaries_ or Damon, unfortunately. This story is just me playing with the characters for fun. I do own Aedan and the plot, however.__  
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**Chapter 1**

Damon was just looking for information about Klaus. They had heard that this particular vampire might know something, and that was how Damon found himself on the porch of an opulent home on an isolated estate. He was looking around in admiration when he suddenly found himself slammed into the wall.

The other vampire pinned Damon's hands at his sides, and as Damon struggled against the hold he realized that he just might be in trouble. This vampire was a lot stronger than he was, and he couldn't move at all. The other vampire was a couple of inches taller than Damon, with sharp, chiseled features and sandy blond hair. Cold gray eyes stared into his. "Who are you?"

Damon stopped struggling and went to Plan B. He widened his own blue eyes, tilted his head, and smiled crookedly. "Damon, Damon Salvatore. Look I think there's been a misunderstanding here. . . ."

The other vampire interrupted him. "Damon – it suits you." Damon couldn't read the look on the other man's face, but he found himself admiring the other's features and fit, muscular build. And those eyes might be cold, but he thought he saw something – a spark – in their depths.

He was blindsided when the other man kissed him. The lips were aggressive against his, and the man nibbled at Damon's lower lip in a way that sent an involuntary shiver through the younger vampire. But when he pulled away slightly, Damon knew he had to put a stop to this. He started to speak, "Hey, I don't . . ." And then the lips were back on his own, and he knew he had made a mistake because now the other vampire's tongue was exploring his mouth, plundering it. He heard a moan, and he was afraid that it had come from him. A very talented mouth was still teasing him, and then Damon was kissing back because he was Damon Salvatore, and really what else was he supposed to do?

They were both gasping for air when the other vampire finally released Damon's mouth. Unfortunately, he didn't release Damon's arms, keeping him pinned helplessly against the wall. Damon squirmed against his grip, a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation and trying to pretend that he wasn't as turned on as he was. He tried another tack. "Who are you?"

The gray eyes were dark with desire as they met Damon's, although there was a definite spark of humor there now. "You're the one who came looking for me."

Damon tried to stay focused. "I'm looking for Aedan O'Reilly."

"You found him." At Damon's look of surprise, he tilted his head. "Not what you expected?"

Before Damon could answer, Aedan nuzzled down Damon's neck, and one hand released Damon's only to rip Damon's shirt from his body. But then Damon was held against the wall by a hand splayed against his bare chest, and the other man's mouth was moving down his body, stopping to lick and tease at his hard nipple. Damon moaned again; then he yelped in surprise as the other vampire bit his nipple. His hips thrust off the wall involuntarily and he closed his eyes against the wave of desire that washed through him. This situation was well and truly out of control, and Damon was trying to care and figure a way out but his body was betraying him. And it wasn't like he had any control over things, anyway, and he was . . . liking that.

The other vampire straightened and kissed Damon again, their tongues dueling. His lower body was pressing hard against Damon's now, and Damon could feel the other's arousal – not too mention his own. He wriggled, pretending he was trying to get free even as his movement served primarily to create friction as his groin rubbed against the other vampire's. This time it was Aedan who groaned hungrily, his mouth momentarily abandoning its exploration of Damon's. "Do that again," he murmured, and Damon found himself obeying, rubbing himself against the other man again.

Aedan's lips tickled Damon's ear. "I'm going to fuck you senseless," he whispered roughly. Damon couldn't stop the shudder of anticipation that ran through his whole body even as a little voice in his head said that this was all wrong, that he was supposed to be the one in control. The other vampire was nuzzling the most sensitive spot on Damon's neck again, and he tilted his head automatically to give him better access. Then he froze as he felt fangs penetrate his neck, drawing at his blood. He couldn't do anything but try to relax, well aware that he was being thoroughly dominated. But there was something about the way the other vampire's body kept him pinned, something about the fangs buried in his neck that made Damon want to submit. He moaned again, and a shiver of desire ran through him.

Aedan finally withdrew his fangs, and Damon felt a tongue flick out to lick away the last drops of his blood as the two small wounds on his neck healed almost instantly. He heard another whisper next to his ear. "You taste exquisite." And then the other vampire was kissing him again, and Damon could taste the traces of his own blood in the other's mouth. He decided it was fucking hot.

He felt hands at the waistband of his jeans, and then they were unfastening the button and ripping down the zipper. Aedan slid down Damon's body until he was kneeling, then he jerked Damon's jeans and boxers down around his ankles, exposing his cock. Damon looked down to see the pleased look in the other man's eyes at his size. "Hmmm, very nice," the vampire murmured. He stroked a hand along Damon's hard length, and Damon moaned incoherently. He writhed and threw his head back as he felt a tongue replace the hand, and Aedan clamped his hands on Damon's hips to hold him immobile.

"Fuck," Damon gasped. "Who are you?"

Aedan ignored him as he licked drops of precum from Damon's cock. He continued teasing at Damon's erection with his mouth as his hands snaked around to Damon's ass. A moment later, Damon felt a finger penetrate him. He froze, his body tensing at the unexpected sensation. He had been with other men before – he was 170 years old, easily bored, and had lived through the 1960s and 1970s, after all – but never like this. He had always been the one in control. "Wait," he whispered. "Please."

Aedan stopped, and his voice was softer than Damon had expected. "Relax. I promise you'll like it." Something about the words and the other's touch did relax Damon, and he felt some of the tension flow from his body. A second finger entered, stretching him out, even as the other vampire's tongue traced along the underside of his cock.

Then suddenly the other vampire stood up, his touch momentarily gone from Damon's body. Damon moaned in frustration, all hesitation forgotten. His cock throbbed, and he was desperate for his release. "Please," he muttered again, his tone entirely different this time as he begged for more.

Aedan said nothing, but he kissed Damon again, hard, as he jerked Damon's leg up to his hip. Before the younger vampire could say or do anything to object, the other man thrust into him, unexpectedly quickly. Aedan was big, as big as Damon, and it hurt. Damon gasped, but the pain was gone almost immediately as his healing kicked in and his body accommodated the other man's length. The other vampire paused for a moment, allowing Damon to adjust, before he pulled Damon's other leg up. Damon instinctively wrapped his legs around the man's waist as he was shoved hard into the rough wall. "Shit," he groaned. "This is . . . "

His words were cut off as the other vampire pulled out and thrust hard into him. Damon cried out abruptly as a deep wave of pleasure unlike anything he had ever felt before washed over him. "Oh fuck," he moaned.

Those gray eyes were looking at him with amusement, and hunger. "I told you you'd like it."

Then he was slamming into Damon, over and over, hitting that spot perfectly every time, and his hand was stroking Damon's cock again. Damon was vaguely aware of the incoherent stream of moans and curse words coming out of his mouth, but mostly he was completely lost in the ecstasy of every touch. It wasn't long before his orgasm rolled through his body, and he tightened around the other man even as his seed spilled messily between them. Damon felt like he was going to pass out from the sheer intensity of the pleasure, and he was suddenly glad that the other vampire was holding him up. His head sank to Aedan's shoulder as the aftermath of release washed over him.

But the other vampire only gave him a second, and Damon was still feeling aftershocks of pleasure when he suddenly found himself back on his own shaky legs. He was instantly flipped around so that his face was pressed against the wall, and then Aedan drove into him again. This was a new angle, but Damon gasped as the other man hit that same spot again. "Ahhh," he moaned helplessly. He already felt weak, wrung out, and if anything, Aedan was thrusting deeper and harder into him now, filling him completely. Part of Damon bemoaned being on the receiving end of the vampire stamina that he himself had used to good effect so many times. He wasn't sure how much more he could take, but it felt dirty and wrong and fucking amazing and he gave himself over to the pleasure.

The other vampire's voice came roughly in Damon's ear. "Do you like this?" He stilled inside Damon, and Damon was well aware that he wasn't going to move again until he got the answer he wanted. And Damon needed him to move.

"Yes, fuck yes," he gasped out. Aedan grasped Damon's hips and shifted them slightly so that he brushed against Damon's insides just right. "Fuck, please," Damon said desperately, needing more friction. "I need . . ."

His words turned into a cry of pleasure as the other vampire thrust into him hard again, giving him what he wanted. "Do you need that?" he asked, and Damon couldn't believe that the other man was still so coherent.

"Yes, yes, yes." Damon found himself repeating the word, falling apart as the other vampire finally sped up his thrusts again. He was certain now that he couldn't take any more pleasure; every nerve in his body was on overload and he couldn't do anything but try to hang onto some semblance of self-awareness. The only thing holding him up was the wall into which he was being driven over and over again, no longer even able to brace himself.

He heard the other man's voice near his ear, rough with pleasure. "I told you I'd fuck you senseless."

Damon's eyes almost rolled back in his head as Aedan deepened his thrusts one last time, but Damon could feel him losing his rhythm and knew that the other man was finally close. Then his head was jerked away from the wall with a sudden force that probably would have snapped a human in half. Damon gasped helplessly as he felt the other vampire's fangs dig into his neck even as he pumped his seed into Damon. It was agony and ecstasy all at once, being filled and drained at the same time, and all so new and unfamiliar and wrong.

Damon was vaguely aware of a last little cry slipping from his lips, but the other vampire seemed to keep drinking from him for a very long time, his arm around Damon's stomach the only thing holding the younger vampire up. Finally, Damon felt the fangs slip from his neck, and Aedan placed a soft kiss on his shoulder. When the other vampire finally released him, Damon collapsed to the ground, feeling like a rag doll as he sank into a boneless heap of limbs. A moment later, he passed out.

•••••

Aedan frowned down at Damon where he lay on his front porch. He slowly buttoned his own jeans. That had gotten more than a little out of hand. He had just intended to intimidate his visitor a little, but then Damon had given him that sexy, flirtatious smile and things had, well, escalated from there. He had clearly been in hiding too long if he was jumping any vampire who showed up on his property, he thought ruefully. But his mysterious visitor had been so damn responsive, from that first moment he had returned Aedan's kiss, that it was like he had been delivered a perfect little sex toy to his house. He knew he had gotten out of control, though, when he had bitten Damon. The young vampire's blood had just tasted so damn good, fresh and flavored with the rush of pleasure, that Aedan hadn't wanted to stop. He knew he had taken too much blood, though, and that was the main reason why Damon was now passed out on his porch.

He reminded himself that Damon was a vampire, and he would recover just fine. He could just leave him there, and his unwanted guest would undoubtedly be gone by morning. He hadn't missed the ring on Damon's finger, so the sun wouldn't hurt the young vampire, and Aedan could return to his peaceful life, unbothered by the world – and far from the radar of his enemies. He certainly didn't care about this black-haired vampire who never should have found him in the first place, even if he was sexy as hell and an amazing fuck.

But Aedan didn't move, watching as Damon shifted slightly but didn't wake. He was lying in an awkward heap, and Aedan itched to at least shift him into a more comfortable sleeping position. This Damon Salvatore was undeniably gorgeous with his lean body, every muscle perfectly defined and not an ounce of fat anywhere, not to mention that tight, perfect ass. His face, even slack in sleep, matched his body, with perfect pink lips, high cheekbones, and sculpted features topped by thick, dark hair, now messy from their activities. And those eyes. They were closed now, but Aedan had been around a very long time, and he had never seen eyes quite that pale blue color, let alone that expressive. It would be a long time before he forgot the image of Damon as he came or the sexy little, and not-so-little, sounds that he had made under Aedan's touch.

After another long moment of hesitation, he bent down and gathered Damon's body into his arms. It would be rather humiliating, after all, to wake up naked on a porch, and Damon didn't really deserve to be humiliated. He certainly didn't care about his visitor in the slightest, but there was no reason to be rude. And he still didn't know why this stranger had come looking for him, which could be important information. He would get the answers in the morning, and then he would send this Damon Salvatore on his way.

Damon gave a little sigh in his arms as Aedan kicked open his front door and carried his burden inside.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Damon woke up in a strange but comfortable bed, a sheet draped over his naked body. He could only guess at the time, but the morning sun brightened the room through gauzy curtains. The deep silence of the room told him that he was alone, and Damon groaned as he moved slightly. He _ached_, and that just wasn't normal for a vampire. A moment later the events of the previous night came rushing back to Damon, and he buried his head in the pillow, remembering why his body ached in the particular way it did. He wanted to blame himself, to ask why the hell he had let any of that happen, but he couldn't deny that his body was becoming instantly aroused at the memory. "Fuck," he muttered into the pillow.

It was just another short moment before Damon was distracted by the smell of blood. He raised his head to see a glass of blood sitting on the bedside table beside him. He stared at it, confused. Breakfast in bed didn't seem to fit with how this . . . encounter had gone so far. But he couldn't think of any reason why Aedan O'Reilly would want to poison him, especially since the events of the preceding night had very clearly established who was the stronger vampire. He sat up and reached for the glass of blood. It was still slightly warm, presumably from a microwave, and Damon was surprised to discover as he sipped it that it had clearly come from a blood bag. His host hadn't exactly seemed like the blood bag type, he thought. But the blood still tasted damn good, and Damon was pleased to feel his aches and pains fade almost immediately as he drank.

He finally looked around the room as he set the empty glass back on the table, ignoring the coaster that it had been sitting on. Damon saw a modern, masculine room decorated with upscale dark wood furnishings and abstract art. It was pristine enough to strike a cord in Damon's neat freak heart, and after a moment Damon reached over and moved his empty glass back onto the coaster. There was no point in damaging the furniture, after all.

Damon could see an en suite bathroom through a door across the room, and he eyed it speculatively. Part of him thought he should be slipping out of there as quickly and quietly as possible, but another part of him really just wanted a shower more than anything else. He pretended to ignore a little voice that said he couldn't leave without seeing Aedan again, especially since he still didn't have the information that he had come for, and in fact, he didn't _want_ to leave without seeing the other vampire. He had no idea how to handle the previous night, whatever the hell it had been, and the morning after – and Damon was pretty damn experienced at the morning after, even though the vast majority of his partners from the past century and a half had been compelled to forget at least part of the experience.

Slowly, Damon got up, still undecided on his next step. He found his jeans folded in a neat pile on a chair, and something about that discovery made up Damon's mind for him. He headed for the shower.

Damon made his shower as quick as possible, trying hard to suppress a stubborn fantasy of being shoved up against the dark stone tile of the shower wall by a powerful, hard, muscled body, slick from the water and pressed up against him as aggressive lips claimed his own. . . . Normally, Damon happily indulged his fantasies, but he wasn't even in his own shower this time. And normally his shower fantasies featured Elena, and _him_ pushing _her _against the wall – and he wasn't sure how comfortable he was with this new fantasy. Of course, now that he was trying to be a good vampire, Damon also wasn't entirely comfortable with his fantasies featuring his brother's girlfriend who happened to look just like his evil psycho ex. And to make things worse, now he had to work with that ex again to stop Klaus and, if it wasn't already too late, save his brother. Again. Damon resisted the urge to smash his head into the stone tile. His undead life sucked.

But a few minutes later, Damon was out of the shower, and he pulled on his jeans after toweling himself off with a fluffy white towel. As he walked back into the bedroom, he eyed the dresser against the near wall. He needed a shirt, and he distinctly remembered – maybe a little too distinctly – that his shirt had been destroyed the previous night. With a little smirk on his face, Damon crossed to the dresser and opened a drawer. He ruffled through a stack of t-shirts until he found a black one. It wasn't as nice as his own John Vervatos shirt had been and it was a size too big, but it would do. Damon pulled the t-shirt on over his head.

A moment later, Damon whirled around as he realized that he was no longer alone in the room. It was Aedan, of course, and Damon stared at the other vampire, unable to stop himself from comparing the reality of the morning to the memory of the night before. He wasn't sure if he was pleased to see that his second impression matched his first. He saw a fit, toned body – Aedan's shirts fit _him_ just perfectly, Damon couldn't help but note – fine features, thick hair, full lips. And stunning gray eyes. Damon thought suddenly that he could be across the room kissing Aedan before either of them could blink. . . . And then he wondered what the hell was wrong with him. Sure, he was pretty much always horny, but this was ridiculous. He decided it was only because he had actually been celibate since Stefan had killed Andie, and he wasn't exactly used to going without sex for any length of time.

But Damon felt obscurely gratified as the cool gray eyes roamed hungrily down his body. Maybe he wasn't the only one a little distracted after the events of the previous evening. The other vampire's lips quirked in a slight smile. "Were you going to ask to borrow the shirt?"

Damon shrugged, tearing his gaze away from the other man's lips. "I figure it's a replacement for mine." He felt slightly surprised, and perhaps a bit disappointed, that apparently they were going to be civil now.

"Fair enough." Aedan wandered another few steps into the room.

Damon couldn't stand the silence. "So, do you greet all your visitors that way?" he asked.

"I don't have visitors."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Obviously," he said drily. "If that's the way you handle them."

Aedan raised an eyebrow at him. "I thought I handled you just fine."

Damon would have been blushing at the tone if he hadn't been a vampire, and he realized he had just been bested at his own favorite game of insinuation. He had to give the other man credit. Of course, Damon also realized too late that his eyes had just flicked from Aedan to the bed, and he couldn't stop his body's reaction. Fuck, he thought. Even though the other man's expression barely changed, Damon knew his own reaction had been noted and catalogued.

Aedan gave Damon a long, searching look, and Damon had the disconcerting feeling that he was being evaluated. He felt a surge of annoyance, although he wasn't sure if it was directed more at the other vampire or at his inability to control himself. But before Damon could sort out his reactions, Aedan's gray eyes locked on his blue ones. "Who sent you to look for me?" the older vampire asked.

Damon was almost grateful for the distraction. He met the other man's intense stare without hesitation and shrugged again, deciding to skip any games. "Katherine. Katherine Pierce."

"Katerina." Aedan paused, his voice growing cold. "And how do you know Katerina?"

Damon sighed. "She turned me." He left out the rest of his long history with Katherine for obvious reasons. In truth, he was kind of glad to finally run into someone who didn't already know it.

Aedan's laugh was bitter now. "Of course she did."

Something in his tone caught Damon's attention, and suddenly he put two and two together. "She set us up." He groaned in frustration. "That bitch."

Aedan laughed again. The sound was slightly lighter this time. "It would seem that she did." Damon decided he liked the other man's laugh. Aedan was looking at him thoughtfully. "And what did you and Katerina want from me?"

"There's no 'me and Katherine,'" Damon began, annoyed. "But I need information about how to kill Klaus, and she thought you might know something."

"You don't want to mess with Klaus."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Too late for that."

The older vampire shook his head. "If Klaus is after you, take it from me – just run and hide. He's accumulated too many enemies to bother to look for all of us. If you take him on, he'll just kill you."

Damon cocked his head. "Is that what you're doing here? Hiding?"

Aedan didn't dignify that with an answer, and after a long silence, Damon resumed speaking. Katherine had finally let Damon in on the reason that Stefan had sabotaged his last plan, but it hadn't helped much with Damon's feeling of betrayal. It had made him even more angry at Klaus, however. "Look, Klaus took my brother from me, and he sacrificed my friend to break the curse and now he's using her blood to make hybrids. And that's just the short version. So I'm going to kill him one way or another, and I could use your help."

"You were the one who let him break the curse?" Aedan sounded more than a little surprised – and disappointed.

Damon glared at the other man angrily. "I didn't exactly _let_ him. I did everything I could to stop him." It was everyone else who had been just fine with the let-Klaus-break-the-curse part of Elena's ridiculous plan. "I just . . . didn't succeed."

Aedan looked at him for a long moment. "Fair enough. But I still can't help you."

"Can't or won't?"

"Does it matter?"

_Yes_, Damon thought. But that wasn't what he said. "If Klaus has so many enemies, maybe you should all stop hiding and work together to kill him." A moment later, he added, almost to himself, "There _has_ to be a way to kill him."

Those words were followed by a long stretch of silence, and Damon stared at a piece of abstract art on the wall rather than look at the other vampire. He clenched his fists, wishing he had an outlet for his anger and frustration, something to throw or break – or at least a strong drink. Aedan was obviously old and powerful, and he clearly knew something. And yet he was in hiding from Klaus.

Finally, Aedan broke the silence. "There is," he said. "There is a way to kill Klaus."

Damon twisted to look at him again, feeling a little burst of hope and knowing it would slip into his voice. "And you know what it is?"

But the other vampire didn't answer him right away, and those cool gray eyes were staring at him again, measuring him again. And Damon knew that every time someone had measured his worth, he had failed the test. His father. Katherine. Even Stefan, and now Elena. Damon knew that he had never been good enough, even when he had tried his best. Damon blinked and looked away, although he wasn't sure he had managed to hide the hurt and disappointment that he was feeling.

A moment later he guessed that he hadn't managed because he thought he heard compassion in Aedan's voice when the other man finally spoke. "Come with me," he said softly.

Damon followed the older vampire out of the bedroom and down a long hallway to what seemed to be a library. He looked around in appreciation, distracted despite himself. The room was gorgeous in an utterly modern way, the exact opposite of the boarding house except that the décor was clearly just as valuable as the Salvatores' collection of antiques. "Wow," Damon murmured. "When did you buy this place?"

Aedan shrugged. "I've been here a while, but I have a lot of time on my hands. I renovate."

"I like it. My house is all antiques and Persian rugs and dark wood. I redid my bathroom for the modern look, but that's it. I haven't spent much time there until recently." He paused, feeling an irrational surge of loyalty toward his own house. "I guess it's kind of home, though," he admitted. Aedan shot him a strange look, and Damon winced, suddenly feeling like an idiot for getting sentimental about his house, of all things. He didn't do honesty and sharing and all that crap, and there was a reason why. He reflexively lashed out to hide his vulnerability. "So what's this information about Klaus that you're too chicken to use?"

Damon barely had time to smirk before he was smacked into a wall. He decided it wasn't nearly as much fun when Aedan was looking at him with real anger in those gray eyes. "Don't talk about things you don't understand," the older vampire snarled.

He released Damon a moment later, and before Damon could figure out what to say – he didn't do apologies either, after all – the other vampire was across the room. "Drink?" he asked abruptly, already pouring himself one.

"Sure. Bourbon, if you have it." Damon was in full agreement that it was past time for a drink that morning. He didn't care that it was probably no later than 9:00.

The other man poured two drinks, and Damon crossed the room to take one. Their fingers brushed as he took the glass, and Damon found himself way too aware of that touch. If Aedan felt anything similar, he didn't give it away. Damon took a long drink to calm himself down. It was good bourbon, he thought appreciatively. He was about to say something when the other vampire began to speak.

"I knew a warlock once, centuries ago. He came from a family known for their witchcraft. He had three sisters, all with the gift, and Klaus recruited all three. He used his charms on two of them, and with the third, he threatened her child," Aedan said bitterly. "One day the sisters made a mistake on a very complicated spell for Klaus, and in a fit of rage, he killed all of them. My friend and I plotted his death then, working for almost a year on a way to take him down." He stopped then, his gray eyes distant and lost in memories, and Damon waited patiently.

Finally, Damon couldn't take it any more. "Let me guess – Klaus found out."

Aedan looked almost surprised as Damon's voice pulled him back to the present. "Yes, Klaus found out. I never knew how. He killed my friend, and I couldn't fight him one-on-one. I ran. I've been running ever since."

"I'm sorry," Damon said with as much sincerity as he could muster. Sincerity wasn't exactly his forté, but he sensed that the story was still painful for the other vampire even after such a long time. "But it's all the more reason to help me kill him now. Payback, and all that. Please tell me you have your friend's grimoire."

Aedan shook his head. "I don't have the grimoire. I burned it. I couldn't let the spell fall into the wrong hands."

"Klaus's?"

The older vampire nodded. "Yes. Or any of his minions. If he knew what we had come up with, he would find a way to make sure it would never work."

Damon shook his head, confused. "But what good does it do if you destroyed the spell?"

Aedan gave him a long, inscrutable look, and then he surprised Damon by closing the distance between them. His hand came to the back of Damon's neck, and he pulled Damon forward slightly as his lips claimed Damon's mouth. It was a long, searching kiss, and Damon returned it hungrily. This was what he had been wanting all morning, and in that moment he wanted it even more than he wanted the information about how to kill Klaus. His own hands slipped to the other man's slim hips, drawing their bodies closer together.

But Aedan pulled away long before Damon wanted the kiss to end. The older vampire moved to pour himself another drink and muttered, "You are a damn good kisser." His voice was quiet, like he was talking to himself, but he had to know that Damon would hear. They were both vampires after all.

Damon knew he was a good kisser, of course, but it was once again more gratifying than he wanted to admit to know that he wasn't the only one affected by the strange chemistry between the two of them.

"Do you have a witch?" Aedan asked abruptly.

The seeming non sequitur threw Damon off – he was partial to the topic of his own kissing skill at the moment – but his answer came without thinking. "Yes. She's young, but she's got power." He almost automatically took the fresh drink that Aedan handed him.

"Good. You may want to find another one or two as back-up," the older vampire said. His gray eyes met Damon's. "I'll tell you the spell."

Damon was confused. "I thought you said you burned the grimoire?"

Aedan rolled his eyes. "I did, but I memorized the spell first. You and your witch will have to memorize it, too. This spell should never be written down."

"Okay," Damon said slowly. Was it possible that he had just gotten what he had come for? That he had just found a way to kill Klaus? If it worked, he reminded himself cautiously. Damon tried not to analyze why he felt disappointment under the surge of hope at the idea of maybe, just maybe taking out the Original once and for all. He opened his mouth to suggest that Aedan should come back to Mystic Falls with him but stopped before the words came out. That would never work, he told himself, and it clearly wasn't the other vampire's intention. Besides, Damon reminded himself that he was in love with Elena, as awkward as that sometimes was. The previous night had just been a case of lust coming out of nowhere. It might have been fun, but it certainly wouldn't happen again. Damon tried to focus as the other vampire put down his drink, clearly preparing to speak.

"First," Aedan began as if he hadn't noticed Damon's confusion. "You need to cast the spell on the site of the white oak tree that was used to create the Originals and that they burned. . . ."

•••••

Aedan watched from an upstairs window as Damon hesitated for a long moment with his hand poised to open the door to his car. He guessed that Damon was thinking about coming back to the house, and Aedan knew that if Damon did turn around and come back, he would make sure that they both thought about nothing but sheer hedonistic pleasure for quite some time. Now that they had actually talked, he knew that Damon Salvatore was witty and smart as well as stunningly gorgeous, and Aedan would be more than happy to have him as a companion in his exile from the world. They could forget all about Klaus, at least for as long as they could stay off the hybrid's radar.

It was possible, Aedan knew, that he had just been played, especially since Katerina was involved. But he didn't believe that Damon Salvatore could have faked his every reaction. Those stunning blue eyes were just too expressive, and the way Damon's body had responded to his just couldn't be faked. No, he believed that both Damon's desire and his anger at Klaus were genuine. And if he was right, the question was which impulse the younger vampire would choose to act on next.

Damon finally opened the door to his car, got in, and drove away, slowly but without a backward glance. Aedan sighed, suspecting that he would never see the young vampire again. He guessed Damon to be about 150 years old based on his strength, which hardly made him a match for Klaus – not that anyone was. Aedan was genuinely curious to see if his spell would work, but he was also old enough to have seen Klaus survive many attempts on his life. Every time, it had been Klaus who walked away, not the vampire or witch or warlock who had tried to kill him, and unfortunately, he doubted that Damon would prove the exception.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: ** _Holiday travel got in the way of updating for the past week or so, but I'm back home now. I know this chapter is really short, but the next one is too long to combine them and for whatever reason I want this one to stand on its own. I will try to post the next one tomorrow, and I will try to get caught up on answering reviews soon, too. Thank you so much to everyone who has read and/or reviewed this story!_

**Disclaimer: **_I don't own _The Vampire Diaries _or any of the characters, and this story is written just for fun. I do own Aedan and the plot.__  
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**Chapter 3**

When Damon's thoughts really started to get the best of him on the long drive back to Mystic Falls, he called Katherine. He needed some answers, and as usual, she seemed to be the one pulling the strings here. She picked up on the second ring, sounding annoyed. "_Took you long enough, Damon. Did you find our target?"_

"Why did you send me, Katherine?"

"_What do you mean?_"

Damon could picture her look of wide-eyed faux innocence. That bitch. "Why did you send me?" he repeated. "Did you know what would happen?"

"_Fine." _He could practically hear the eye-roll in her voice. "_You're exactly his type, okay? And you flirt with anything that moves, especially when you're looking for information."_

"I do not flirt with anything that moves." Damon felt a little thrill at the idea that he was Aedan's type. And then he just felt disgusted with himself. He was pathetic.

"_Yes, you do. So did it work? Did you get what we need?"_

Damon wasn't ready to move on yet. "You could have warned me."

"_Would you have agreed? I know you, Damon – you're a kinky guy. I figured you could handle yourself."_

"Yeah, but still . . ."

Katherine interrupted him. "_Oh my god. You followed through, didn't you? You slept with him."_

"No," Damon said, trying to put as much disbelief as possible into his voice. "And by the way, that's none of your business, Katherine." Damon knew right away that he had overdone it. His denial was completely transparent, and Katherine would see right through him, as usual. She knew him even better than he knew her, after all.

"_Now that's an interesting development_," Katherine said. Damon thought she sounded amused, and he winced at the idea that he was providing Katherine with entertainment. Her voice continued after a short pause. "_I'll bet it was __hot__. He's good in bed, isn't he?"_

Fuck, Damon thought. Now he was sharing sexual partners with his evil vampire ex-girlfriend. That might even be more fucked up than sharing them with his brother. Or maybe not. He felt a small sense of gratification, however, that he had apparently finally managed to surprise Katherine.

He realized he had been silent too long when he heard Katherine's voice again. "_Damon? So did you get it? Did Aedan know how to kill Klaus?"_

"Yeah, he knew," Damon began. But then he lied. "But he wouldn't tell me."

"_You're lying."_ Damon knew just the way Katherine would be narrowing her eyes as she said those words. He had also known that she wouldn't believe him. She would find out soon enough if the spell checked out, but for now, it was more fun to keep her guessing.

"Nope. I wish I was."

"_Have you lost your touch that much? Been crushing on humans too long?"_

Damon refused to let her rile him up. He shrugged even though she couldn't see the motion through the phone. "Guess so."

Next she tried to threaten him. _"I wonder how my little human doppelganger would take the news that she's been replaced in your bed and your heart?"_

Damon was not going to go _there_. "Gotta go, Katherine. It's been fun, as always." He hung up the phone. He just hoped Katherine wouldn't actually tell Elena because he'd have a hell of a time explaining himself. In truth, he still had no real idea what had happened with Aedan O'Reilly or what he thought about it. Or whether he wanted it to happen again. If that was even an option. Damon shook his head, wishing he didn't still have more than an hour of driving ahead of him. That was way too much time to think.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: ** _Happy New Year! Here is a full-length chapter to celebrate ;)_**  
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**Chapter 4**

The next week and a half passed in a blur as Damon consulted with Bonnie and laid down plans and contingency plans and alternate contingency plans for the spell to kill Klaus. "Third time's a charm," he muttered to himself as he went over it all in his head one more time. It was going to work; it had to.

Damon's days were busy. The problem was the nights. He lay alone in his bed, staring at the ceiling as his mind buzzed with activity. And when he finally fell asleep, he dreamed of a certain pair of gray eyes and a powerful body having its way with him.

With four days left before the fateful night, Damon found himself driving west and north, retracing his route along back roads and past tiny little towns until he finally pulled into the long, winding drive that led to his destination. Damon had decided that he deserved one last night of fun before probably dying in yet another kamikaze attempt to kill Klaus and save Elena from a lifetime as a living blood bag. But he didn't dare try to take things to the next level with Elena. He wasn't sure how she would react – she had certainly shot him down enough times before – and it still didn't seem right to pursue his brother's girlfriend when Stefan had saved his life yet again. And for some reason, the idea of spending that last night out at a bar that served good bourbon and beautiful women didn't appeal to Damon. Instead, he was driving back roads to the house of a certifiably insane vampire, and he was trying his damndest not to overanalyze that.

This time, unlike the last, he got as far as knocking on the door after pulling his Camaro up in front of the house, and a moment later that door opened to reveal the vampire who had haunted his dreams. Damon stared at Aedan, getting lost in those gray eyes for a long moment. It was Aedan who shifted slightly to break their eye contact. "Damon," he said with a quiet nod. "Would you like to come in?"

"Sure." Damon followed the other man inside. He watched as Aedan blurred across the room and poured two drinks. A second later, he was back and handing one to Damon.

The look Aedan gave him was unreadable. "So what brings you back?" the older vampire asked. "Trouble with the spell?"

Damon shook his head and chugged half his drink. This already wasn't going like he had planned. "Not exactly," he said. "We're going through with it in four days."

Aedan nodded. "The lunar eclipse," he said. "Your witch can pull power from the celestial event."

Damon had to give the other man credit for quickly figuring it out. "And we hope the eclipse may limit the power of Klaus's wolf side, since it's tied to the moon and all," he added.

"It makes sense," Aedan said quietly. Damon noticed that the other man's glass was almost empty as well. "So why are you here?"

Damon wondered if he was being deliberately dense. He shrugged and made his pitch. "Call it a condemned man's last request."

Aedan looked at him thoughtfully. "So you don't expect to survive?"

Now Damon was the one whose voice was quiet. "I figure it's long odds," he admitted. "One of these days my luck is going to run out." He poured the rest of his drink down his throat.

Aedan gave him another long look, but this time Damon knew what the other man was thinking. He had just enough time to set down his empty glass before Aedan had closed the distance between them and was kissing him. It was a long, intense kiss, holding nothing back. Their tongues dueled, and their bodies were pressed together as it went on and on. When they finally broke apart, Aedan stared at Damon with dark eyes, and Damon responded with his best flirty little smirk. The older vampire reached down to slip his fingers under the waistband of Damon's jeans. "Come with me," he said roughly. He tugged Damon with him in the direction of the bedroom, and Damon was more than willing to follow.

Aedan released Damon and took a step back as they entered the bedroom. "Take off your clothes," he ordered.

Damon cocked his head at the older vampire, not sure he wanted to be as submissive as he had been the previous time. "How about one of mine and one of yours?" he challenged. He slowly began to unbutton his shirt and led it slide to the floor. Then he flashed across the room to stand right in front of Aedan. His blue eyes glinted with mischief as he began to unbutton the other man's shirt in turn. Damon slipped his hands under the shirt as he did so, running his hands appreciatively over the strong muscles of the other vampire's chest. Aedan's gray eyes were dark with desire by the time Damon let the shirt drop to the floor.

Damon took a step back then, still playing his game. He slowly unbuttoned his own jeans and lowered the zipper. He kicked off his shoes and ever so slowly removed each sock. Then he began to slither out of his jeans, his eyes on the other vampire the whole time. Aedan was watching him intently and hungrily, and Damon knew that look. Now wearing only his underwear, he closed the short distance between them. He ran his hands down Aedan's body again as he knelt in front of him, his fingers deftly unfastening the other man's pants.

Then Damon changed things up. He swiftly jerked both Aedan's pants and underwear down around his ankles, murmuring in appreciation as the other man's hard erection sprang free. Aedan moaned loudly as Damon stroked a hand along his cock, and Damon smiled as he began to tease the other man with his lips and tongue as well as his hand. This, he knew how to do, and he savored the feeling of finally having the upper hand as Aedan's fingers fisted in his hair and the older vampire groaned out his name. When he knew the other vampire was close, he took Aedan's cock fully into his mouth, swallowing the other man's seed as Aedan's orgasm hit.

Damon had barely had time to pull away, however, before Aedan was flinging him onto the bed and kissing him. "Your turn," he murmured when he finally released Damon's mouth. Now he was the one kissing his way down Damon's body as the younger vampire trembled under him. One quick jerk tore Damon's underwear from his body, and Damon just moaned as his cock sprang free of the restrictive fabric. But then Aedan stopped his progress down Damon's body. Instead the older vampire abruptly jerked Damon's hands up above his head and held them there.

Damon just smirked at him. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked as he squirmed lightly against the unbreakable grip of the other man. His body hummed with desire at Aedan's touch.

"Whatever I want," Aedan answered roughly.

Damon squirmed again. "What if I fight?" he asked teasingly.

The glint in Aedan's gray eyes told Damon that he had asked the right question. "I hope you do," the older vampire answered. His grip on Damon's arms loosened just enough that the younger vampire slipped free for a moment, and Damon struggled against the powerful body that had him pinned. He loved that he didn't have to hold back in the slightest with Aedan. He could exert every ounce of his strength without any worry of hurting his companion, and he reveled in the feeling of their two bodies rubbing against each other as they wrestled.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion, of course, and minutes later, Damon found himself on his stomach, Aedan again pinning him and pressing him into the bed. "Are you ready to give in?" he whispered in Damon's ear, his voice rough.

He was kissing and licking at a sensitive spot on Damon's neck, and Damon shuddered with desire again. He felt Aedan's fangs slice into his neck at exactly that spot, and Damon cried out in pleasure. A moment later, his body relaxed in automatic submission to the more powerful vampire, as if Aedan's bite had claimed Damon as his.

It was just a taste this time, however, and Damon felt Aedan's fangs withdrawing a moment later. "Good," the older vampire said quietly, clearly reading Damon's submission. "Now what should I do with you?" When Damon didn't answer immediately, Aedan ran a finger over the already healed bite mark on Damon's neck. "Well?" he asked as Damon shivered helplessly under his touch.

"You should fuck me," Damon muttered. "I want you inside me." He had to force the words out, but the anticipation was almost unbearable. He wanted to feel what Aedan had made him feel before, no matter how weird he felt saying those words.

"Hmmm," Aedan purred in response. He began kissing his way down Damon's back, his lips and hands teasing every inch of Damon's skin. His hard cock rested against Damon's side, and Damon moaned, almost desperate for his lover to get on with it.

The teasing touches went on and on, however, until Damon was quivering under the other vampire's mouth and hands. "Please," he whispered. "Please, Aedan." Damon hated to beg, but all the foreplay was taking too damn long.

As if that was what he had been waiting for, Aedan sat up, giving Damon room to move. "On your hands and knees," he ordered. "And spread your legs."

Damon obeyed, climbing shakily to his hands and knees. Aedan was kneeling behind him, and the other vampire brought his hands to Damon's hips then before stroking smoothly over Damon's ass. "Have I told you that you're gorgeous?" he said quietly.

Damon shook his head, thoroughly unconcerned with that right then, especially since he might be insecure about many things, but his looks weren't one of them. "Aedan," he moaned. "Just get on with it."

"So eager," the other vampire murmured. Damon imagined that there would be a smirk on his face. "So you don't want pretty words right now?" He finally inserted a finger into Damon's ass, and Damon shivered with anticipation.

"No," he muttered. "I just want you." Aedan was lubing him up now, and Damon knew this would make things more comfortable but he really just wanted the other vampire inside of him. His own neglected cock was throbbing almost painfully, and he was more than ready.

"Do you want it dirty and hard and rough?" Aedan asked in a low, gruff voice, and Damon moaned loudly in response. Before he could manage to speak, he felt the tip of Aedan's cock at his entrance, and then the vampire abruptly entered him. It was smooth this time, but it was also fast and deep. Damon cried out at the first taste of the pleasure that he had been anticipating for so long even as Aedan pulled out and immediately slammed back into him, giving him exactly what he wanted. He kept pounding into Damon, hitting his sweet spot every time, and Damon was screaming out the other vampire's name in minutes, his body shaking at the sensations rushing through him.

Then Aedan abruptly jerked Damon up onto his knees, still inside of him. Damon cried out in surprise, and then he moaned helplessly as Aedan began to stroke his cock with long, hard strokes. It felt like only seconds before Damon was coming, tightening around the other vampire as his seed spilled messily under Aedan's expert touch. He felt Aedan pull out and slam back into him again, once, twice, and then Aedan was crying out and Damon felt warm liquid pumping into his body. It was still an unfamiliar sensation, but he decided he definitely liked it.

They both collapsed onto the bed, breathing heavily and bodies slick with sweat and other fluids. Aedan was half on top of Damon, and Damon gave a little mew of protest as the other vampire slid off of him. He heard Aedan chuckle as he felt the older vampire wrap an arm around him, and he sighed in pleasure as he felt his lover's skin against his own again. He lay there quietly then, his body more than sated and his mind oddly content. He could feel his eyes threatening to close in sleep even as he remembered vaguely that he had never planned to stay the night.

•••••

Aedan pulled away for just a moment to grab a towel from the bedside table and clean things up a little. Damon made another little sound that caused Aedan's long dead heart to skip slightly, and he wrapped his arm around Damon again, suddenly not wanting to let go of the younger vampire. He was just waiting for Damon to fall asleep before joining him. It had been a long time since he had spent the night in bed with a lover, but it had been a very, very long time since he had found anyone who affected him like Damon.

"I should go," Damon murmured sleepily, his eyes half closed. "I told Elena I wouldn't be gone long."

Aedan kissed his shoulder lightly. "Stay. What's a few hours?" He pulled Damon closer, enjoying the feeling of Damon's strong body now pliant and relaxed against his own. He didn't want Damon to leave. Damon's mind was completely open to him in that moment, and without thinking, Aedan reached into the younger vampire's mind and pushed him toward sleep.

Damon gave a little purr of contentment and settled deeper into the other vampire's embrace. His eyes slowly closed completely, and minutes later, his breathing evened out as he slept. Aedan felt a surge of guilt that he had just manipulated Damon when his lover had been nothing but open and trusting, but he shunted the guilt aside with an ease born of centuries of practice. Damon had been on the verge of falling asleep anyway, he told himself. And holding Damon then felt so good that he didn't want to think about anything else. Damon showing up on his doorstep twice now was the best surprise he had had in centuries, Aedan thought as he joined the younger vampire in sleep.

•••••

Damon awoke to a dark room, a vague feeling that he was supposed to be somewhere else stirring him to wake. He tensed, confused in that first moment of waking. A heavy arm was draped over his hip, and he could feel a powerful body wrapped around his own, spooning him. Before he had even moved, he heard a deep voice mumble sleepily in his ear. "Relax, Damon. Go back to sleep."

_Aedan_, his mind thought, and his body relaxed as if on cue. He was warm and comfortable and safe, and most of all, he felt wanted. After 145 years of near-constant loneliness, that alone was enough to cause Damon to burrow contentedly into the hold of the other man, unwilling to give up that feeling even if it would only last the few hours of the night. Minutes later, Damon was slipping back into a deep, peaceful sleep.

•••••

When Damon next woke up, morning light filled the room. Aedan was still holding him, and Damon sighed at the feeling of waking up in someone's arms. "Morning," Aedan whispered as he felt Damon stir. He planted a series of soft kisses along Damon's shoulder. Damon rolled slightly onto his back, and Aedan hovered above him, leaning on his elbow. His gray eyes were soft as he looked down at Damon before bending so that their lips met. His hand trailed slowly down Damon's chest and over his abs, and Damon felt his body arch up slightly off the bed in response to the other man's caress. Then he heard his phone from across the room.

The phone was on vibrate, but in the near-silence of the room, it was still loud to vampire ears. Damon groaned and pulled away from Aedan slightly as the sound of the phone dragged him back to reality. "Fuck," he cursed. Reality didn't have room for a leisurely morning in bed. "That'll be Elena. I was supposed to be back in Mystic Falls by now."

Aedan sighed and rolled away from Damon. "It's been going off all morning," he admitted.

"Shit, why didn't you wake me?" Damon glared at the other vampire.

Aedan shrugged, looking only slightly repentant. "I figured you could use the rest. I did wear you out last night, after all."

"Shut up." Damon sat up. He wasn't as annoyed as he should have been at the other man's arrogance. It was, in fact, kind of familiar, and Damon hadn't entirely lost that blissful feeling of being wanted by someone. He got out of bed and stretched, watching Aedan's reaction out of the corner of his eye and feeling pleased at the slight darkening of desire in the other vampire's gray eyes. Damon was always off balance in this whatever-it-was – exercise in mutual lust? – with Aedan O'Reilly, and although that was part of the appeal, it also left him uncharacteristically unsure of himself.

Smiling slightly at the other man's reaction to his naked body, Damon crossed the room and quickly checked his phone, finding a series of texts and messages from Elena, just as he had expected. He didn't bother to check them, figuring that could wait until he was on his way back to Mystic Falls. His eyes wandered immediately back to where Aedan still lay sprawled on the bed, however, and he wished that he didn't have to run back to Elena and his problems. But he had made promises, to her and to himself.

As Damon hesitated, Aedan moved to get up, and Damon quickly crossed back to the bed. "Stay here," he told the other vampire, grinning to soften his words. "I'm going to take a quick shower, and if you follow me, we both know it won't be quick."

Somewhat to Damon's surprise, Aedan complied and stayed on the bed. He did give Damon a mischievous look, though. "Are you sure quick is what you want?" he asked.

Damon shook his head. "No," he admitted. "But I really do have to go." He hurriedly gathered up his discarded clothes from the night before and headed for the shower before he could change his mind.

•••••

Aedan lay back on the bed and sighed in frustration as Damon disappeared into the bathroom. It was entirely unlike him to just let Damon shower in peace – let alone leave – when he wanted nothing more than to keep the other vampire there all morning and beyond. But he already felt obscurely guilty about manipulating Damon to stay the night so he reluctantly got up and pulled on a pair of sweatpants, trying not to analyze his own actions too much. He had been a vampire a very long time, and he knew that he had long since lost any semblance of a conscience or a sense of fairness. And he could easily overpower Damon, so why wasn't he just taking what he wanted? Especially since he knew perfectly well that Damon would enjoy it.

While Aedan was still puzzling over his own actions, Damon reappeared in the bedroom, fully dressed. His black hair was still soaked, however, and Aedan immediately regretted his decision to pass up shower sex. Damon was even more attractive, if such a thing were possible, with his hair wet and his skin glinting with a few stray drops of water, and Aedan could all too easily imagine how he would look in the shower, ecstasy sweeping over his face.

Damon's voice pulled him back to reality. "Sorry to run out on you," the younger vampire said ruefully. "As you know, I have a diabolical plan to execute, and those things don't run themselves." He grinned crookedly as he began to pull on his shoes.

Aedan shook his head slightly, at a loss for words at the sight of that smile. "Good luck," he said finally.

Damon looked slightly puzzled at that. "Thanks," he said. He turned toward the door and even took a step in that direction before suddenly turning and flashing back to where Aedan stood by the bed. He kissed Aedan lightly, his lips soft and warm, but all too quickly, those lips were gone. Blue eyes met Aedan's gray ones for a long moment. "Maybe I'll see you again some day," Damon said quietly. "After Klaus is dead." And then he was gone from the room.

Fuck, Aedan thought. He realized then that he cared about Damon Salvatore, and how the hell had that happened so quickly when he hadn't cared about anyone in more years than he could count? Worse, he knew that it was almost certain that he never would see Damon again, that the younger vampire would die in just three days as he tried to kill Klaus. He cursed himself for a fool as he sat back down on the bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** _This is another long chapter - it actually might be the longest that I've written. Elena may be a bit OOC at times in this chapter (and this story overall). I've tried to keep things as true to character as I can, but I also have to go in a direction that works for this story. (And honestly I'm not sure where the writers are going with her character on the show anyway.)_ _Thanks for reading and double-thanks if you write a review and let me know what you think! I really appreciate the feedback._**  
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**Chapter 5**

Damon made Elena's house his first stop on his return to Mystic Falls. She opened the door almost before he could knock. "Damon, where the hell have you been? You said you weren't going to be gone long." She was glaring at him furiously, but Damon could also see the telltale evidence of tears in her eyes. He suddenly felt terrible for getting distracted and falling asleep at Aedan's house.

He shrugged and looked away. "Things just took a little longer than I expected," he said vaguely. He was still entirely unwilling to even try to explain to Elena what – let alone who – he had been doing. He changed his tone then, trying to sound like his usual cocky self. "But I'm here now, and the plan is in motion."

Elena shook her head. "It's all falling apart, Damon. Katherine is gone."

"What? Where'd she go?" Damon knew his eyes were wide with surprise even as he realized that he really shouldn't be surprised that Katherine would bail at the last minute and save her own skin.

"I don't know, but she's gone and the plan depended on her."

This time it was Damon who shook his head. "No, it didn't, Elena. It can still work, even without her." He wasn't stupid enough to actually count on Katherine, after all. He had a contingency plan, even if he didn't like it.

Elena looked more than doubtful. "Damon, there's no way you and Caroline can hold off all Klaus's hybrids by yourselves. We need Katherine."

Damon kept his voice casual. "Ric will help, too," he said. He tugged Elena into her house, extending his senses for any sign of listening ears. He was almost certain that they were alone, but he dropped his lips almost to Elena's ear to whisper his next words anyway. "We've spent the past week seeding the woods with anti-hybrid weapons. We'll be able to hold them off." He wasn't sure if he actually believed that, but they were all in on this plan and they wouldn't get a better chance.

Elena shook her head stubbornly. "It doesn't matter. All it takes is one bite, and you'll end up dead. It's a suicide mission."

Damon had always known that, and he was suddenly tired of lying to her. "It's always been a suicide mission, Elena," he said angrily, blue eyes flashing. "I was never walking away from this, and if you thought about it, you'd know that. But the thing about a werewolf bite is, it doesn't kill you instantly." His look reminded Elena that they both knew very well how long and drawn out a death by werewolf bite was for a vampire.

"Even if we get bit, we can still fight," he continued. "We'll manage to hold them off long enough for you and Bonnie and Lucy to do the spell." Damon paused before deciding to offer Elena some hope. "Besides, you're going to save me some of Klaus' blood just in case I get bit, and we'll do the whole cure thing again. Not the dying thing." His mind wandered back to the deathbed kiss that Elena had given him. It was better not to mention that, since he knew it would just make things even more awkward between them. Elena had made it perfectly clear in the months since then that she preferred to forget that kiss, even if she also flirted with him. It had left Damon more than a little confused about where they stood, and he was even more confused after the previous night with Aedan.

"Damon," Elena said. She sounded stricken, and her huge brown eyes were definitely filled with tears now. "We can't go through with it. I can't lose you. You said you'd never leave me."

"Well, I lied," Damon said brutally. Screw hope. Hope was stupid, anyway. "Look, Elena, this is bigger than either of us now. Klaus needs to die."

Before Elena could answer, there was knock on the door. Damon flashed over to open it, glad to have an excuse to end that conversation. He opened it to an unnaturally cheerful face framed with blond hair. "Oh hi, Damon. You're back," Caroline said. "I talked to my mom, and she has what you asked for."

Elena had a puzzled look as she glanced between the two vampires. "What did you want from Sheriff Forbes?" she asked.

Damon grinned, pleased with his idea. "Flak jackets," he said.

Elena still looked confused. "Why?"

It was Caroline who answered. "Extra protection from wooden bullets and vervain and werewolf bites. They won't be expecting it, so it will give us an edge." Her voice sounded downright confident as she added, "See, we're on top of things, Elena." Caroline's blue eyes met Damon's as Elena looked away doubtfully, and Damon knew that the blond vampire had overheard the end of his conversation with Elena and was just trying to smooth things over. He knew from that look that Caroline was aware of exactly what their odds were.

•••••

Damon heard the car and footsteps even before someone knocked on his front door. He frowned as he approached the door. He wasn't expecting anyone, and in his experience, unexpected visitors rarely brought good news. He was shocked when he opened the door to find a tall vampire with sandy blond hair and deep gray eyes. "Aedan?" Damon said stupidly. "What are you doing here?"

Aedan tilted his head and looked amused. "Are you going to invite me in?" he asked.

Damon's brain had caught up with what he was seeing now, and he smirked in response. "I don't recall you inviting me in," he said. But he stepped aside and gestured to his visitor to enter anyway. He certainly wasn't going to leave the other vampire standing on the porch.

Aedan's eyes glinted with amusement as he moved past Damon into the house. "Touché," he said. "Although I did invite you in the second time." He looked around with interest as Damon led him into the parlor. "Your house is lovely," he added with a slight smile.

Damon started, remembering their short conversation about houses and surprised that Aedan remembered it. "Thanks," he said. He poured two drinks and handed one to the other vampire. "So," he asked after a long minute of silence. "What brings you here?"

For the first time, Aedan didn't meet Damon's eyes immediately. "It _is_ my spell," he said finally. He slowly raised his gray eyes to meet Damon's. "I guess I'm here to help."

Before Damon could come up with an answer to that, Elena walked into the room. She looked back and forth between the two vampires in surprise. "Damon, what's going on?" she asked. "Who's this?"

Damon shook himself slightly. "This is Aedan O'Reilly," he said. "Apparently he's going to be our replacement for Katherine." He felt a small surge of hope. Damon wasn't sure exactly how old Aedan was, but the other vampire was clearly powerful. Maybe they had a chance of pulling this off, after all. "Aedan, this is Elena Gilbert."

Aedan turned to Elena and executed an old-fashioned bow over her hand. "You must be the doppelganger," he said. "You're much prettier than Katerina."

Elena looked wide-eyed at that, and Damon hid a grin. Aedan knew how to pull off old-fashioned charm, like Damon himself on the rare occasions when he bothered to do so. And of course Damon always appreciated a good dig at Katherine. "So you know Katherine," Elena said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Unfortunately," Aedan replied ruefully.

Damon decided it was time to intervene. "Aedan was my source for the spell," he told Elena.

"Oh," Elena said, clearly surprised. "Thank you for helping us."

"Don't thank me yet," Aedan replied. He shot a quick glance over to Damon. "You can thank me when Klaus is dead."

Damon was busy pouring himself another drink because the vampire that he had just sought out for sex – crazy hot sex that made him way too aware of the other vampire's body even with several feet of distance between them – was now in the same room as the girl that he had feelings for. Nope, this wasn't awkward at all. He gestured for Aedan to take a seat. "I guess I should explain the plan," he began.

•••••

His next visitors didn't bother to knock. Damon had shown Aedan to a guest room – anything else would be way too complicated – and was in his own room when he heard the near-silent motion of a vampire downstairs. He flashed down the stairs and into the parlor only to stop dead at who he found there. "Katherine?" he said in surprise. "I thought you ran for the hills?"

Katherine shrugged. "You weren't around, Damon. Why would you assume that I would let my idiot doppelganger in on my plans?" She smiled one of her sneaky little smiles. "I brought reinforcements."

At her words, someone else stepped into the room from the hallway. Damon stared at his brother. "Stefan?"

"Don't look so surprised, brother. I do live here, too, you know." Stefan took the drink that Katherine handed him.

Damon was still watching his brother. "You still have your emotions turned off." It wasn't a question.

Stefan shrugged. "Doesn't mean I don't want Klaus dead just as much as the rest of you."

Damon gave Stefan a long, measuring look. Then he shrugged. His voice was casual when he said, "I'm just wondering why your switch still works and mine doesn't."

Stefan tipped his drink at Damon. "Just lucky, I guess," he said.

Aedan chose that moment to appear on the stairs, and Stefan shot Damon a confused look even as Katherine smiled. "Aedan O'Reilly," Katherine said with a little tilt of her head. "I guess Damon hasn't lost his touch after all."

Aedan just nodded at Katherine. "Katerina," he said. "It's seldom a pleasure, but I suppose this might be the exception."

Damon felt a sense of satisfaction as the confused look on Stefan's face only deepened. It was nice to have his brother be the one in the dark, for once. He took a couple of steps to Stefan's side and offered, in a stage whisper, "They go _way_ back."

Stefan just glared at him, but Katherine looked amused. "Indeed we do," she said.

Stefan turned defiantly toward Aedan. "How old are you, anyway?" It was a rude question even among vampires, but Damon didn't stop him because he was damn curious, too.

Aedan didn't look particularly offended at the question. "I was turned in 1507, by the current calendar, so I suppose you could say that Katerina and I are contemporaries."

Stefan looked a bit taken aback. "How does one celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of being a vampire?" he asked.

Damon shook his head silently. With his emotions turned off, Stefan was probably an even bigger dick than he was, and now Aedan definitely looked annoyed. The older vampire ignored Stefan's question. "I gather that you're Damon's brother," he commented instead. "There is a certain family resemblance."

"I resent that," Damon chimed in. "I'm _much_ better looking."

It was at that moment that Elena appeared from the direction of the kitchen, having presumably heard them talking. Damon watched as her face and her eyes lit up at the sight of his brother, and he knew with horrible certainty that he had never truly had a chance of winning her heart. "Stefan!" Elena exclaimed. "You came back." She looked like she wanted to throw herself into his brother's arms.

"Careful, Elena," Damon warned. "He's not bunny-eater Stefan, you know." He could hear the hint of pain in his own voice, and he could only hope that no one else would notice.

Elena barely even glanced at him. "It's okay, Damon. Klaus isn't compelling him anymore."

Stefan shot him that smug look that Damon hated. "Yeah, Damon. I'm no longer compelled. Free to do _whatever_ I want."

Damon ignored his brother and moved to pour himself a drink. He searched his brain for a change of subject, trying to ignore the hurt that he was feeling, and settled on the practical. "I suppose you want to know what the plan is," he said with a glance between Stefan and Katherine. "So you can try not to screw it up this time." He downed the entire drink in one gulp.

Stefan still looked smug. "Oh, Katherine filled me in. I'll be there when you need someone to step in and save your life again."

Damon ignored that, although he was pretty sick of Stefan saving his life. He scoffed instead. "You really think that I told Katherine the whole plan?" _Or that I'm going to tell you_, he added to himself as he poured drink number two. He had a feeling this was going to be a long evening. Fighting hybrids tomorrow might turn out to be a relief.

•••••

Damon stripped off his shirt and tossed it onto his bed, furious at himself for his reaction to Elena and Stefan earlier that evening. He should know better by now. He should know that Stefan always won. He crossed the room to his window and stared blankly out at the yard. His head was buzzing from the alcohol he had consumed, but it hadn't helped much in dulling his emotions. He was glad that his brother was back, he really was, but that didn't mean that he wasn't also still angry at Stefan for sabotaging his previous plan to kill Klaus. And now for winning back Elena without even trying.

Damon thought he loved Elena, and everyone had been telling him for months that he was in love with her, but he was completely confused about his own feelings right now. It had crossed his mind to wonder how he could be in love with her when they had never even properly kissed – because neither the death-bed-kissy-thing nor the night he had killed Jeremy was even close to a real kiss. She was beautiful, and they had undeniable chemistry, but Damon also suspected that, when it came down to it, Elena was a nice girl. She had fallen for his brother during Stefan's bunny-eating, I-just-want-to-be-a-high-school-student phase, after all. And nice girls had never really done it for Damon. In fact, he had fallen in love with Katherine precisely because she _wasn't_ a nice girl. Damon thought about how Aedan's touch lit his body on fire, and he wondered if Elena could make him feel that way. Not that it mattered, he thought bitterly, because Elena didn't love him anyway. She loved his brother even now, after everything.

A soft knock on his door interrupted his thoughts, and after a deep breath to steady himself, Damon called out, "Come in." He expected it to be Elena, coming to his room to make sure that he was okay after all the tension downstairs. He raised a brow at the sight of Aedan. "Did you get lost looking for your room? It _is_ a big house." Damon didn't think before the snarky comment came out of his mouth to cover his disappointment that it wasn't a certain brunette human at his door.

"Yes," Aedan deadpanned. "I got lost. But this looks like a nice room."

Damon laughed in spite of himself. He could hear the touch of bitterness in the sound, though. "It is a nice room, but I'm afraid I'm not good company tonight," he said after a moment.

"Are you okay?" the other vampire asked quietly. "You seemed upset earlier."

"I'm fine," Damon lied.

"That's convincing," Aedan said, raising an eyebrow himself. Damon turned away, hating how he could be such an open book to the people who knew him well – and then wondering how the hell a vampire that he had spent only a few hours with had managed to get into that category. He closed his eyes, aware that he was practically vibrating with suppressed emotion. He badly needed a distraction, an outlet for everything that he was feeling. Then he turned back around as the reckless thought crossed his mind that the perfect distraction was right there in his room.

Aedan was watching him with a combination of concern and desire in his gray eyes, and before he could talk himself out of it, Damon had flashed across the room and was kissing Aedan hungrily. Damon pressed their bodies together as Aedan returned his kiss with just as much intensity. Damon tugged the other man with him toward the bed, shedding the remainder of his clothes and stripping off Aedan's as best he could in the process.

They were both naked by the time Aedan pressed him down into the bed, his tongue continuing to explore Damon's mouth. He nipped at Damon's bottom lip before shifting his attention to Damon's neck, and Damon moaned loudly, heedless of the other vampires in the house. Gray eyes locked with blue ones for a moment, and it was suddenly too intimate for Damon's liking. He exerted his strength and flipped them over, straddling Aedan. Damon grinned at the surprised look in the other vampire's eyes. He ran his hands teasingly down Aedan's body before sliding down to suck his nipple. One hand continued its exploration until he was stroking the other man's hard cock, his touch rough and aggressive. Damon was determined to drive the other vampire completely crazy, and he kept up his ministrations until Aedan was trembling under his hands and mouth. Damon abruptly sat up then, drawing his hands away and meeting eyes that were almost black with lust now. "I've been bad," he whispered with a smirk. "You should punish me." His voice was harsh with his own need.

Aedan groaned at his words, but he reacted just as Damon had hoped, flipping their positions so that Damon was face down on the bed before he could even take a breath. Damon pushed up onto his knees, presenting his ass teasingly to the other man. Aedan was clearly on the same page. "Lube?" he asked roughly.

Damon shook his head. "Don't need it," he muttered. He had some somewhere, possibly even in the drawer in the nightstand just a few feet away, but he didn't care if it hurt. In fact, he wanted it to hurt – because if his body hurt, it would match the new pain in his heart.

Aedan pushed his fingers in front of Damon. "Suck on this," he ordered, and Damon obeyed. A moment later Aedan was inserting first one finger and then a second into Damon, and he teased Damon's hole with the tip of his erection, spreading precum around to prepare Damon. Damon just moaned, however, fighting the urge to beg Aedan to take him. He didn't have to wait long before the other vampire thrust into him, and Damon cried out at the mixture of pain and pleasure. Pleasure quickly swamped any lingering pain as Aedan drove into him hard, just like Damon wanted. His efforts to rile Aedan up had paid off perfectly, and the other vampire quickly sped up his thrusts until Damon was lost to everything but the sound of flesh hitting flesh, the mingled cries and grunts coming from both of them, and the feeling of the other man driving deep inside of him. He was being fucked blind and senseless, forgetting everything else until he finally came with a loud cry and Aedan followed him.

Damon collapsed on the bed, his muscles liquid as Aedan sank down beside him. Unfortunately, thought was coming back into Damon's head way too quickly, and regret was the foremost of the pesky emotions that were interfering with the relaxed aftermath of orgasm. He shifted away from Aedan, keeping just enough distance to make it clear that he didn't want to cuddle, not tonight. He remembered very well how good it had felt to sleep in Aedan's arms, but Damon didn't think that he deserved that feeling just then. He felt obscurely guilty that he had just used the other vampire for distraction sex, even though their relationship, such that it was, had really only ever been about sex anyway. But Damon was well aware of the hints of a deeper connection with Aedan, and he suddenly wondered if he had just jeopardized whatever potential was there for a brief distraction. His regret deepened for a moment at that thought, but it was tempered with a fatalist's resignation. This was what Damon did – he screwed things up. He broke everything good that he touched, so it would be no surprise if he had broken another relationship that could have been something. Damon had succeeded in tiring out his body, however, and it didn't take long before physical exhaustion and satisfaction overwhelmed his mind's doubts and pulled him into sleep.

•••••

Aedan felt a surge of frustration as Damon pulled away from him and eventually fell asleep on the other side of the bed without a word. He had seen the pain marring Damon's gorgeous blue eyes earlier, and he had noticed how Damon had consumed drink after drink in an effort to dull that pain. What Aedan didn't understand was why no one else had seemed to care that Damon was hurting. Katerina, he supposed he understood, because he was pretty sure that she didn't actually possess a heart, and Damon had said something about his brother's emotions being turned off – odd, in a vampire the age of the Salvatore brothers, but not impossible. But the doppelganger Elena clearly meant a lot to Damon, and she had seemed entirely focused on Stefan. Damon was risking everything to kill Klaus for these people, and Aedan didn't like that they hadn't cared that Damon was hurting. He had come to Damon's room because he couldn't leave the other vampire alone and in pain, although he wasn't sure in retrospect if he had helped much.

Aedan had made some calls after his first meeting with Damon, trying to find out what kind of vampire he had just trusted with the spell he had kept hidden for so long. _"Damon Salvatore?" one of his old friends had said. "Are you finally getting out of that pretty house of yours and meeting the younger generation of vampires? Damon Salvatore is a smart ass troublemaker, but he __is__ a sexy smart ass."_ And Aedan could only smile at that, although it wasn't very helpful since he had already figured out on his own that "sexy smart ass troublemaker" was probably an understatement. Another of his friends had given him hints of Damon's history with Katerina. _"Damon Salvatore? Katherine turned him, and of course she broke his heart in the process. I know some vamps who really don't like him – Lexi hated the guy for some reason – but I never thought he was all that bad. Crazy like the rest of us, but how many vamps do you know who aren't fucked up?"_ Aedan had stopped himself from seeking out details of Damon's past after that particular conversation, deciding that he would rather judge Damon Salvatore based on what he saw rather than what rumor said. He had never much cared for Lexi, so he counted that as a point in Damon's favor.

And so far he liked what he saw, tonight notwithstanding. Watching Damon on the other side of the bed, he fully realized what he had only vaguely sensed through his earlier haze of lust – that he had just been used for sex that had little or nothing to do with Damon's feelings for him, whatever they might be. He shook his head, more amused than angered. He was far too old to hold any romantic illusions about sex, but he was rather impressed that Damon had managed to use him – it was always Aedan that used whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted. How odd that he found himself in the position of pursuer when he suddenly found these emotions stirring his heart after so many centuries of caring about no one. Damon Salvatore was wrapping him around his little finger, he thought as he stared at the tousled black hair and muscled back of the sleeping vampire, and if by some miracle they survived their attempt to kill Klaus, he was just going to have to find out whether there was room in Damon's heart for him. He fell asleep listening to Damon's breathing from across the bed.

But when Aedan awoke in the dark room a few hours later, he found that Damon had rolled over next to him, still fast asleep but now nestled against his body. He grinned at that, suspecting that whatever was going through Damon's head would prove no match for his body's awareness that it had found a perfect match in Aedan. Aedan knew because his own body had unequivocally informed him that it wanted Damon, and not just once or twice. Aedan knew that, as much as he had claimed Damon for his own, Damon had done the same to him. Damon had come back to Aedan's house because of that connection between them, just as Aedan had been drawn to follow Damon back here. He wrapped his arms contentedly around the younger vampire and drew him close. Damon sighed in his sleep and snuggled into Aedan's arms as the older vampire let sleep reclaim him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Damon awoke to find himself curled against Aedan's body, and he started a little in surprise. He had truly believed that Aedan would be gone by morning, driven away by Damon's own stupidity. "You're still here?" he murmured, still more than half asleep and too surprised to think about how those words might sound to the other vampire.

But Aedan didn't seem to be offended. Damon could feel a small chuckle rumble through the other man's chest. "Where else would I be?" he asked, amusement in his voice.

Damon's brain was working slightly better as sleep left him. "Your room," he answered with a hint of his usual snark.

Aedan still sounded like he was smiling. "Nah, I still like the company better here."

Damon looked up at Aedan. "Still?" He was sure he looked and sounded utterly vulnerable and pathetic, but he couldn't stop himself.

"Still," Aedan affirmed. His gray eyes were warm. "It's not like I didn't enjoy last night," he added with a touch of mischief in his tone.

Damon grinned at him. "Oh yeah . . ." he began, but he was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

Elena's voice came through the door, sounding puzzled. "Damon, are you in there? Bonnie and Lucy are here to start preparing for the spell tonight."

Damon groaned. "What time is it?"

Now Elena sounded disgusted. "It's almost nine, Damon. What are you doing in there?"

Damon was sorely tempted to answer that the proper question was, once again, _who_ he was doing, but he stopped himself just in time. "I'll be down in a few minutes," he said instead, holding a finger to his lips to tell Aedan to be silent. Apparently neither Stefan nor Katherine had clued Elena in on the activities that they had to have heard last night, and now wasn't really the time that Damon wanted to deal with explaining himself. They had a hybrid Original to kill, after all.

"Okay, take your time," Elena called back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's not like today is a big day or anything."

"Shut up, Elena," Damon replied, the anger from the previous day beginning to creep back into his mind. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, aware that he badly needed a shower.

Aedan sat up, too. "Hey," he said softly, stroking a hand down the side of Damon's face. He leaned over and gave Damon a quick kiss, his mouth lingering on Damon's for just a brief, teasing moment. "That's the second time she's interrupted us in the morning," he said, his tone now one of mock annoyance. "If it happens again, I might get upset." He stood up and picked up his pants from the trail of clothes leading to the bed. "For now, I'm going to find that guest bathroom you so hospitably showed me yesterday."

"Are you sure?" Damon felt a surge of disappointment that Aedan wasn't going to join him in the shower, even though Elena was actually right that they had a lot of last minute preparations to see to.

Aedan grinned. "I'm sure I'm going to regret this, but you still have a diabolical plan that needs you. There's always tomorrow." Damon was pretty sure that he heard a hint of false cheer in the other vampire's voice. Aedan was far too smart not to realize that their plan was just short of suicidal, after all, but as he watched Aedan slip out his door, Damon hoped there might actually be a tomorrow.

•••••

The fight in the woods that night was brutal. The hybrids just seemed to keep coming, no matter how many they killed, and they were just as strong and fast as Damon and Stefan, stronger than Caroline. Individual hybrids were no match for Aedan and Katherine, but the sheer numbers were overwhelming. Damon lost track of Ric early in the battle, and he could only hope that his friend's eternity ring would save him yet again.

Caroline was the next to go down. Damon got there in time to pull the werewolf off of her, but not before it had mauled her shoulder even through the flak jacket. Caroline lay shuddering on the ground, and Damon felt a surge of guilt for being the one to first drag her into all of this over a year ago. Stefan flashed over to them a moment later, and Damon seized the opportunity to get them both out of the line of fire. "Get her out of here," he ordered Stefan, and his baby brother obeyed out of force of habit.

But that left just Damon, Aedan, and Katherine against all the hybrids that Klaus had mobilized. Blood dripped from Damon's hands from ripping out hearts, and he could feel physical and mental exhaustion setting in. He realized too late that the hybrids had begun to fight in groups when three of them cut him off from the other vampires. Crouching down, he dug into the leaves on the forest floor for one of the wolfsbane grenades that he and Ric had hidden earlier in the week. His fingers found the hard plastic of the grenade, and he immediately tossed it into the face of one of the hybrids. It howled in pain. Unfazed, the other two hybrids attacked Damon simultaneously.

He managed to deflect one away with a fist to its shoulder, but the other one came in low, and Damon's attempt to dodge it was a fraction too slow. He went down as the wolf's teeth dug into his thigh, the weight of its attack sending Damon sprawling onto his back. The wolf released his leg almost immediately, going for his neck, and Damon could only fling up an arm as a last ditch defense. The wolf's sharp teeth sliced into his forearm, but a second later its eyes went dark and it collapsed on top of him, dead. Damon flung the wolf off him in disgust to reveal Aedan standing above him with the dead wolf's heart in his hand. As Damon stared at the other vampire, Aedan tossed the bloody heart away and reached down a hand to help Damon up.

Damon took it, feeling more than a little shaky, and let Aedan help pull him to his feet. "Thanks," he said quietly. He saw a flash of deep regret in Aedan's gray eyes, and Damon knew that the other vampire was well aware of the probable death sentence that Damon had just received.

Damon dusted himself off slowly, feeling his skin knitting itself back together where the wolf had bitten him. The pain faded as it healed, just like with a normal wound on a vampire, but Damon knew that was only temporary. He forced that thought out of his mind and instead stared at the hole in the leg of his jeans with annoyance. "That's what I get for wearing good jeans to a fight," he said.

Aedan was staring him like he was crazy, and Damon just shrugged. There was no point in dwelling on the werewolf bites. They had happened, but there was still a forest full of hybrids that needed killing. They couldn't afford to let them get through to where the witches were casting the spell. And there was no time for any regrets because Damon saw the shining amber eyes of three more hybrids approaching through the forest. He steeled himself for another fight.

Damon had killed another hybrid and he thought Aedan had taken out at least three when a bright light flashed, illuminating the sky from the direction where the witches were casting their spell. It was followed by a deafening scream that Damon thought – or maybe hoped – came from Klaus. He saw several remaining hybrids turn tail and run, and he stared at Aedan. "Do you think it worked?" he asked, trying to keep from sounding too hopeful.

Aedan started to answer, but he stopped as Katherine and Stefan, who had apparently rejoined the fight at some point, arrived. "Did it work?" Katherine asked hopefully, echoing Damon's question. She bent down and tore a piece of fabric from the shirt of a dead hybrid, fastidiously cleaning her bloody hands with it.

"I guess it's time to find out," Damon replied. They all began a silent trek through the forest toward the place where Bonnie and Lucy had cast their spell, the site of the ancient white oak tree used to create vampires and burned to the ground by the Originals. Damon forced himself to stay alert for any stray hybrids, but all the survivors seemed to have fled. Bodies were strewn everywhere. They fell short of piles, but Klaus had brought a small army of hybrids with him. And the four vampires had torn them to pieces. Damon felt a small amount of satisfaction at that – still the toughest monsters around. He just hoped they had gotten Klaus as well.

Aedan was apparently thinking along somewhat similar lines. "I thought werewolves were rare?" he asked quietly.

It was Stefan who answered. "I think once Klaus turned a few, they probably led him to others. We had a tough time finding the first ones."

"We?" Aedan asked, sounding a bit surprised. "You were working with Klaus?"

Damon interrupted before Stefan could explain. "That's a long story," he began, trying to head off anyone who might want to tell that whole sordid tale.

"It wasn't exactly by choice," Stefan said quietly.

Even in the dark, Damon could see Aedan's nod of acceptance. Aedan seemed to be taking this whole complicated mess rather in stride, and he hadn't fought like a man who would spend hundreds of years hiding from a fight. From what Damon had seen, Aedan had mowed through Klaus' hybrids, and he had to admit it had been pretty fucking hot.

It was only a short walk to the small clearing where the witches had cast the spell. Damon could see smoke as they approached, and entering the clearing, he saw a patch of charred grass that was still smoking. Elena was kneeling on the ground beside Bonnie and Lucy. The witches' faces were both covered with blood from the exertion of the spell, and Damon could also smell Elena's blood where she had cut her arm to make her contribution to the magic. There was no sign of Klaus.

Elena looked up as the four vampires stepped out of the trees. "Stefan," she exclaimed. "You made it!" Damon winced as Elena stood up and threw herself into Stefan's arms, hugging his brother tightly. He forced himself to watch. The hug didn't last too long, however, before Elena had disengaged herself and was looking around suspiciously. "Where's Caroline?" she asked.

Stefan answered before Damon could. "She's back at the house. She was bitten," he said gently.

Elena focused on Stefan. "But you're okay?" she asked.

Stefan shook his head slowly. "One of them got me on the arm," he said quietly. Elena looked stricken at that, and Damon felt his own heart drop into his stomach. Stefan was never even supposed to be part of this, never supposed to be at risk. His baby brother should have been off being an insufferable dick while Damon fixed the mess they had gotten themselves into. He felt an irrational surge of fury at Katherine for bringing Stefan back into danger. He should have found a way to keep Stefan out of the fight entirely, he thought bitterly, but he had been too distracted by his damn emotions to think straight the previous night.

But Damon hung onto a small fragment of hope. "Klaus?" he asked, his gaze shooting between Elena and Bonnie.

It was Elena who answered. Her voice was quiet and serious. "He's dead," she said. "But his body burned up. There's no blood." Her dark eyes showed that she knew exactly what that meant.

Damon stared at his own arm, unable to look at Elena or his brother. The bite had healed, but he knew that was only temporary. In a few hours, he would be looking at his own death sentence, and he couldn't bear to go through that again. It was some fucking plan he had come up with, he thought, that would end up with both himself and Stefan dead. But Elena would have her life back, he reminded himself, with no more Klaus to threaten her. And that, more than anything else, had been his ultimate goal.

Elena's voice cut through his bitter thoughts. "Damon, what about you? Are you okay?"

Damon wanted to lie, but Aedan had seen him get bitten. He shook his head. "Nope," he said. "They got me, too." He shrugged with false bravado. "I guess Mystic Falls will finally be free of vampires in a couple of days. You can put your vervain in the drinking water now."

Elena glared at him. "I never wanted that," she began, but Katherine cut her off.

"Well, I for one am fine," Katherine declared. "I thought hybrids were supposed to be tough?" Damon thought he heard a false note in her voice, however, and he supposed that Katherine was upset about Stefan being bitten. She did claim to love his brother, after all.

Elena ignored Katherine and turned to Stefan. "Did Klaus ever say anything about another cure?" she asked, her voice desperate.

Damon turned away, but not before he saw Stefan shake his head. "I'm going to look for Ric," Damon said. Everyone except Aedan, who had been silent so far, seemed to be ignoring him, so he headed back into the forest toward where the fight had started. Aedan came with him, and Damon realized after a moment that the gray-eyed vampire had never said whether he had been bitten. If Katherine had come through unscathed, he assumed that Aedan had as well, but he turned to the other vampire with a question in his eyes.

Aedan read his look before Damon could even ask. To Damon's horror, he shook his head. "They pulled the same trick on me that they did on you – four attacked me at once, and one of them nicked my arm. Not much of a bite, but I don't suppose that matters." His gray eyes were rueful.

Damon stopped walking, staring at Aedan. He had managed to get both Aedan and Stefan killed, not to mention Caroline. Only Katherine, who was worse than a cockroach, would walk away from this brilliant idea of Damon's. It was one thing to know that a plan was suicidal and another to face the cold, hard reality afterwards. Damon suddenly wished that werewolf bites killed quickly. He didn't want to face a long lingering death, and it only made it worse to know that he had condemned three of the few people he cared about to that same death.

Damon knew that Aedan could tell what he was thinking when he saw compassion swamp the other emotions in those gray eyes. "It's okay," Aedan said quietly. "I knew what I was getting into. We all did. And it was worth it to kill Klaus." He reached out a hand toward Damon, but Damon couldn't bring himself to take it. He was frozen in place. "Come on. Let's find your friend," Aedan finally said. "I'm curious how that eternity ring works."

Damon knew Aedan had changed the subject on purpose, and he forced himself to nod and put one foot in front of the other. Klaus was dead and Elena was safe, he reminded himself. In the grand scheme of things, it was a win – even if it didn't feel that way.

•••••

That night Damon was almost asleep when he heard his door creak open. He forced himself to sit up slightly. His vampire vision gave him a clear view of his visitor even in the dark room. It was Aedan. This time Damon wasn't surprised. He knew Elena had Stefan and Caroline to worry about, and he was no longer surprised that he would come in third to those two in her heart.

"Want some company?" the other vampire asked. He sounded uncharacteristically tentative.

"Sure," Damon replied sleepily. "But I have to warn you that I'm going to be out in minutes." In fact, Damon felt more tired than he could ever remember feeling. He would have liked to spend the evening getting drunk and celebrating Klaus' demise, but he just didn't have the energy.

"That's okay," Aedan replied. He stripped off his shirt and crawled into bed beside Damon. "I'm pretty much exhausted myself," he admitted.

After a moment's hesitation, Damon nestled into the other vampire's embrace. This was better, he thought, than being alone. He sighed as Aedan's body pressed against his own. Damon knew they would both be dead in, at most, a couple of days, and he felt another surge of guilt for dragging Aedan into his quest to kill Klaus. "I'm sorry," Damon whispered even as sleep tugged at his mind and body.

As he dropped off into an exhausted sleep, Damon felt Aedan place a soft kiss on his temple. "It's okay, Damon," the other vampire murmured softly. But Damon was already out cold.

•••••

Aedan wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when he woke up to the dark room. Beside him, Damon was out, as deeply asleep as Aedan could ever remember seeing a vampire. He attributed that to exhaustion from the day's battle, although he liked the implication that Damon also trusted him enough to let his guard down entirely. He had felt that from Damon once, but he hadn't been sure if it had been a fluke – and he knew that he didn't really deserve that trust. He had in fact taken advantage of it, although he didn't think Damon knew that. Aedan was also aware that the trust between them was unconscious, part of the strange connection that existed without any conscious volition on the part of either man. In truth, Aedan wasn't entirely comfortable with what he was feeling. He was no longer used to these kinds of emotions, but on another level he craved that connection – and he strongly suspected that Damon did as well.

Aedan's arm was throbbing, and he didn't have to look at it to know that the werewolf bite was slowly growing. It was making it hard to sleep, so he took advantage of the only available distraction – not a very good one – and watched Damon sleep. He thought that the other vampire looked simultaneously both exhausted and young. Damon had never looked particularly young when he was awake, even though he had clearly been young when he had been turned. It had preserved his physical beauty, and Aedan certainly appreciated that, but life as a vampire had hardened Damon, robbing him of some of the essential characteristics of youth. Some vampires cultivated appearances that concealed their nature - Katerina often played the flirtatious girl and Aedan guessed that Damon's brother Stefan was also adept at such deception. Aedan didn't doubt that Damon was very capable of playing a variety of roles, but he had seen very little of it from Damon in the short time he had known the younger vampire. Damon seemed to prefer honesty, and Aedan found that rather refreshing.

The exhaustion visible on Damon's face worried Aedan, even though he was well aware that they were all exhausted from the fight and all – except Katerina, of course – dying from werewolf bites. But he felt an almost overwhelming urge to wake Damon up to make sure that he still could, that Damon hadn't died on him, especially since he had been bitten badly twice. He could hear Damon's breathing, however, slow but steady, like someone deep in sleep but not, he thought, like someone dying. As a vampire, Damon didn't need to breathe, but it was a reflex that the body continued even after turning, and he could trust it as a guide that Damon wasn't on the verge of death. He reached over and lightly stroked Damon's temple, admiring his lover's flawless features.

He couldn't help but be damned impressed with Damon after today. Klaus had been terrorizing other vampires for far longer than even Aedan had been alive, and they ran or they died – no one stood and fought and won. Except Damon. "You're fucking crazy," Aedan whispered in admiration to the black-haired vampire sleeping beside him. "But you pulled it off." Aedan could hardly believe that his long-time nemesis was finally dead, that the spell that he had devised so long ago with the last man that he loved had actually worked. His only regret was that his brief time with Damon was almost up. Both of their extended lives would be over soon, and he just wished that they had time to explore what they could be together. He finally sank back into a fitful sleep, his mind circling around thoughts of mortality. He was well aware of the irony that he had been alive for over five hundred years and found himself wishing for more time.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: ** _I was hoping to get this up yesterday. That didn't happen, but here it is to end some of the suspense. The timing of the progression of werewolf bites on the show was kind of unclear to me (like most aspects of time on the show, I suppose) so I'm going with a pretty quick progression here and hoping you ignore any seeming inconsistencies with the show. One small warning - if you found the last chapter emotional, I think this one is more emotional. But that's why I'm pretty happy with how it turned out ;) I hope you agree - thanks for reading and reviews are much appreciated!_**  
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**Chapter 7**

Damon groaned and buried his head in his pillow as light flooded his pleasantly dark bedroom. He just hoped that it would go away, and he could go back to sleep. Beside him, he heard Aedan sigh and sit up.

Then Katherine's voice penetrated the silence. "I thought I might find you in here, Aedan," she said cheerfully. "How's your arm?"

Aedan sounded irritated. "I was bitten by a werewolf. How do you think it is, Katerina?"

Katherine ignored Aedan's tone, sounding matter-of-fact. "Just checking on how you two are doing. I already had to lock up Blondie. The delusions have started in full force for her. I can understand thinking that I was Elena, but not Bonnie and her mom. But of course, she did get mauled pretty badly, and she's only a baby vampire." Katherine's voice softened more at her next words. "How's Damon?"

Damon tugged the blankets up over him, still pretending to be asleep and hoping Katherine would shut up and go away. The excruciating pain of the werewolf bites hadn't hit yet, other than in the form of a monster headache, and he just wanted some peace and quiet for what would probably be his last morning alive and sane. Or as sane as he ever got.

Aedan laughed slightly as Damon shifted the covers on the bed, and his voice was amused. "I don't think he wants to talk to you."

"Too bad," Katherine said, and she abruptly jerked the blankets away from Damon, leaving him exposed on the bed.

"Fuck off, Katherine," Damon muttered, keeping his head buried in the pillow. He didn't really care that he was naked – he had never exactly been shy, and it wasn't like she hadn't seen him in his birthday suit before – but he still had no desire to get up.

The tone of Katherine's voice changed completely with her next words, however. "Where was he bitten?" she asked Aedan.

"His right arm and his left thigh," Aedan said quietly. The surprise in his voice finally caused Damon to move and sit up.

"Damon," Katherine said slowly. "Your bites are still healed."

Damon finally looked at his own body in surprise. Sure enough, the skin on both his arm and his leg was intact and unblemished. There was no sign that a werewolf had torn into the skin just the day before. He raised his eyes to meet Aedan's and grabbed the older vampire's arm gently. The festering, blackened sore of a spreading werewolf bite marred Aedan's muscled forearm. "What the hell?" Damon said.

•••••

Now dressed and downstairs, Damon rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He certainly didn't feel good – his head was still throbbing and he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a week – but it was true that he didn't appear to be dying of a werewolf bite. He stared at the healed skin on his arm one more time, not sure he believed the evidence of his own eyes.

"Okay," Katherine said with a glance around the room. "Caroline is already delirious and locked up in the basement. . . ."

"And my bite seems to be progressing like Damon's did before." Aedan held up his arm, where the festering bite had clearly expanded overnight.

"But Damon appears to be healed – even if he's not looking so good," Katherine added.

"Thanks, Kat," Damon said drily, wondering if he looked as bad as he felt. He shook his head. "It has to be because I was bitten before and survived. My body must still have some kind of resistance."

"Like antibodies," Elena chimed in.

"That makes sense," a familiar voice said from the doorway. Damon looked up to see Stefan. His brother held up his own arm. "Mine has healed, too."

"When were you bitten by a werewolf?" Damon asked irritably.

"In the woods the day you and Elena came after me," Stefan answered seriously. "That hybrid Ray bit me, and Klaus healed me with his blood."

Damon frowned. His brother looked bad, pale with dark circles under his eyes and even more forehead wrinkles than usual. Damon hoped that he didn't look as worn out as Stefan, although he suspected that he did since his little brother's appearance matched how Damon was feeling. He really hoped he wasn't developing brooding wrinkles, though. Some things just wouldn't do if you were going to live forever.

"Okay," Damon said slowly. "So if we both have some kind of resistance to werewolf bites because we've been cured before, is it possible that our blood holds the cure?" He knew that his eyes flashed with hope as they met Aedan's. "Can my blood, or Stefan's, cure Aedan and Caroline?"

"It's worth a shot," Katherine said quietly.

A second later, she was handing Damon a glass. Damon let his fangs come out and bit into his own wrist, squeezing the blood into the glass. "How much do you think it will take?" he asked no one in particular. When the glass was half full, Damon let his wound close and passed the blood to Aedan. Their fingers brushed, and Damon felt a surge of electricity. As his blue eyes met the other vampire's gray ones, he suddenly really hoped this crazy idea worked.

•••••

For the next few hours, Damon continued to feel hope through the massive headache that wouldn't go away. They had forced both his and Stefan's blood down Caroline's throat, and although she was still in bad shape, Aedan's bite seemed to have stayed about the same size. But then Aedan stumbled and caught himself getting up from the couch. "Are you okay?" Damon asked, his voice sharp with worry.

"I'm fine. Just dizzy," Aedan answered, and Damon's heart sank.

"That's one of the first symptoms," he said slowly, remembering his own bouts of dizziness after Tyler had nipped him.

And for the rest of the day, things just got worse. Aedan's bite seemed to be growing on his arm, and Damon thought he saw a telltale glitter of illness in the older vampire's eyes. By evening, Damon had taken Aedan upstairs to his bed.

"This room?" Aedan asked with a weak smile as Damon led him inside.

Damon couldn't help but smile back at that. "It's the most comfortable bed in the house," he replied. "Not to mention the best company." He waggled his eyebrows at Aedan, although his heart wasn't in it.

That evening it was Damon who held Aedan as the poison spread through his body. He felt sick as he remembered holding Rose in this same bed just months before. He didn't think he could go through that again, didn't think he could end the life of another friend. If Aedan died, it would be proof that Damon really did break everything that he touched, even the strongest of vampires.

But when Katherine showed up at his door a few hours later, Damon just glared at her and tightened his hold on Aedan. The older vampire was asleep, and Damon signaled Katherine not to wake him. He had already mistaken Damon for several different people that Damon had never heard of, people who were probably long dead, and sleep was the closest thing to peace that Aedan was likely to find.

"How is he?" Katherine asked. She obliged Damon by keeping her voice quiet.

Damon couldn't answer, blinking back tears. He tried to pretend that he just didn't want to wake the other vampire, but Katherine's next words proved that she wasn't fooled. "Damon, if he's delirious we should lock him up in the basement. He's almost as old as I am, and you won't be able to control him."

Damon shook his head, finding his voice. "No," he said defiantly. "He would never hurt me. And besides, weakness is one of the effects of the bite. I was stronger than Rose by the end."

"Damon," Katherine repeated, her voice surprisingly soft. "The blood isn't working. You're going to have to let go." She sounded disconcertingly like Elena in that moment, so much so that Damon did a double take to make sure he hadn't gotten them confused. But no, it was definitely Katherine, and Damon decided he should be worried if she was actually showing compassion for him.

He shook his head stubbornly, however, as if his sheer stubbornness could heal Aedan. "No," he said. "He's strong. He's going to be fine." He tightened his arms around Aedan.

Katherine took a step forward toward the bed. "Okay, we'll give it some more time." Damon could tell by her tone that she was just humoring him, that she was certain that Aedan would die. He watched, silent and angry, as Katherine placed a stake on the nightstand with a look that clearly said it was only a matter of time.

But Damon couldn't bear even that thought. He just sat there after Katherine had floated silently back out the door, staring blankly around his room – never at the stake – and occasionally sweeping sweaty hair back off Aedan's face. The other vampire looked bad now, pale and gray and sick, and Damon remembered all too well how it felt. He shuddered and closed his eyes against the combination of memory and dread. He wished suddenly that he could trade places with Aedan; he would rather deal with the physical agony than this feeling of the past and future closing in on him.

Damon didn't know how much time had passed when Aedan stirred in his arms and opened his eyes. Gray eyes stared vaguely at him before he saw a flash of recognition. "Damon?"

"Yeah, it's me," Damon said softly. "I'm right here."

"God, this hurts," Aedan groaned.

"I know. Believe me, I know. But you have to keep fighting it." Damon's state of delirium during the latter stages of his own werewolf bite meant that he didn't remember everything that had happened, but he didn't think he would ever forget the pain that had burned through his body. It was a fucking horrible way to die. But Aedan wasn't going to die – Damon was going to keep telling himself that until it came true.

"I'm sorry," Aedan murmured, and Damon was suddenly uncertain if the older vampire still knew where he was.

Desperate, Damon let his fangs come out and bit into his own wrist. "Here, drink some more of my blood. We just have to give it time." He pressed his wrist to Aedan's mouth, and the other vampire drank for a moment before a sudden cough wracked his body. Damon had to pull his wrist away as Aedan convulsed in his arms.

"Fuck," Aedan moaned. "Will it be over soon?" His gray eyes had a pleading look as they met Damon's, and that look was so completely uncharacteristic of Aedan that it broke what was left of Damon's heart. He was almost willing to end it for his lover then, even knowing what it would do to him. He wasn't at all sure that he would come back from ending the life of another friend, that he wouldn't pull the stake from Aedan's heart and plunge it into his own. He was so fucking tired of being alone.

In the end, Damon couldn't bring himself to pick up the stake that Katherine had left beside the bed. He just nodded and closed his own eyes, unable to watch any longer. A few minutes later, Aedan went limp in his arms after another round of coughing and Damon opened his eyes, desperately afraid that Aedan had died. Then he heard the other vampire's faint, raspy breathing, and he sighed in relief that Aedan had just fallen asleep again. He knew that if he couldn't use the stake that he should call Katherine and she would do it, but he couldn't bring himself to give up on Aedan. He closed his eyes again as he felt tears running down his face.

The change, when it came, was almost imperceptible. Aedan's breathing gradually strengthened and steadied. It took Damon a while to notice that Aedan hadn't suffered through a coughing fit in some time, but when he did he wiped away his own tears and peered at the other vampire closely, his fingers running tenderly through Aedan's damp hair. Was his color better? The sweat had dried on his skin as the coughing and convulsions stopped. His body was relaxed, but it seemed now more like the natural relaxation of sleep rather than the weakness of impending death. And his color did look better, Damon thought hopefully. He stroked Aedan's skin lightly as the vampire slept seemingly peacefully, his head in Damon's lap.

"Aedan," Damon murmured softly. Only a few minutes had passed since he had decided that Aedan might be recovering, and Damon hesitated to wake the other vampire. But he needed to know for sure.

"Hmmm?" It was a sleepy sound, but Damon thought the echo of pain had faded.

"How do you feel?" Damon couldn't keep the hope from his voice.

"Tired," Aedan murmured, and Damon felt hope surge through him. Tired was much, much better than wanting to die from the pain.

"Do you feel better?" Damon pressed.

Aedan opened his eyes slowly, and the gray eyes were clear and aware. "I think so," the older vampire said after a moment.

Damon decided that the sickly gray cast was definitely leaving Aedan's skin. Gently, he grabbed his lover's arm and lifted it, studying the werewolf bite. "I think it's smaller," Damon announced.

"I'm not sure," Aedan said hesitantly. "But I definitely feel better. It doesn't hurt as much." He had barely finished his sentence before Damon was kissing him, heedless of Aedan's chapped lips or the lingering smell of sickness or his own tears. It was a long, tender kiss as Damon tried to convey without words just how worried he had been, and after a moment of surprise, Aedan kissed him back with just as much tenderness.

When Damon finally pulled away, he gently disengaged himself from Aedan and got to his feet. "Where are you going?" the older vampire asked in surprise.

"The basement. I have to tell them not to stake Caroline. I'll be right back." Damon's blue eyes glittered with more tears, unshed this time, as he looked at Aedan for a long moment before speeding from the room.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** _It's about time for another chapter, don't you think? This is where I originally planned to wrap this story up neatly, but the characters aren't cooperating with that plan. They want more story, and who can say no to Damon, after all? So we have at least a few more chapters to go.__ Sorry I haven't had a chance to respond to your reviews from the last chapter - thank you all for your kind words!_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own _The Vampire Diaries_ or Damon. This is all just for fun, although I do own Aedan and the plot. _

**Chapter 8**

With all of their bodies utterly exhausted by the effort of healing from werewolf bites, Damon largely got his wish about doing nothing but sleeping for the next few days. Whatever cure lingered in Damon's and Stefan's blood was apparently far less potent than that in Klaus's, but it was enough, just barely, to pull everyone through. Caroline had the toughest recovery, but after Damon appeared in the basement to tell Elena and Stefan that Aedan was healing, there was no way that Elena was going to give up on Caroline. Damon tried to pretend that he didn't care, but he was secretly glad that Vampire Barbie was going to make it. Katherine disappeared again, presumably (in Damon's opinion) because there was no one awake for her to torture. Elena and Alaric resorted to repeated coffin jokes about the house full of vampires sleeping all day. Damon kept expecting to find a coffin in his living room, but coffins were both heavy and expensive – and neither of his human friends was exactly the type to steal one for amusement. Damon would have done it in a second, but there was no point in playing a practical joke on himself, after all.

Damon suspected that Stefan had turned his emotions back on – or his switch had finally malfunctioned – because he had dodged a couple of apparent attempts by his brother to engage him in Serious Conversation. Stefan had a particular look when he was planning to lecture Damon about something, and Damon had spotted that look a couple of times and disappeared before Stefan could corner him. He was still kind of annoyed at Stefan, anyway, and he could wait until his brother got over his need to lecture before engaging in any renewed brotherly bonding. Stefan and Elena were safe, and Klaus was dead, and those were the things that mattered to Damon. He and Stefan had plenty of time now, and they could resume their bizarre relationship.

The other thing that mattered was that Aedan had stayed, and Damon was perfectly happy to spend many hours in bed with him even if he had to take some teasing about coffins – and even if they actually spent most of the time asleep. But one day around noon Elena walked in on them.

Damon was awakened from a light sleep by the sound of a cup hitting the floor and breaking, and he opened his eyes to see Elena staring at him with a look of shock and betrayal in her big brown eyes. She turned and fled from the room.

A second later Damon had extricated himself from Aedan's arms and was pulling on his jeans and t-shirt at vampire speed. Under other circumstances he might have just skipped the clothes, but being dressed seemed like a good idea given the situation. He spared a quick glance for yet another stained rug – his nose told him it was coffee this time, which at least might be easier to get out than blood – as he sped out of the room. He was in front of Elena by the time she made it down the stairs. "Elena," he began, with absolutely no idea what he was going to say.

Of course, Elena didn't let him finish. "Get out of my way, Damon," she snarled. Damon could see the tears in her eyes, however.

A litany of excuses was running through Damon's head, but none of them fit the situation. It was, after all, exactly what it looked like. Finally he settled on, "What did you think was going on, Elena?" It was true that Elena didn't have vampire hearing and she had seemed almost entirely focused on Stefan since the moment Stefan had shown up in the house. After the fight, that focus had expanded to include Caroline, but Damon had hardly seen her – largely, of course, because he had been focused on Aedan. And sleep. But despite all that, Damon didn't see how she could have missed seeing the relationship between him and Aedan. Elena had once seen through every one of Damon's fronts, and he wondered suddenly when she had become so absorbed in her own problems that she had ceased to pay any attention to what was going on with her friends.

Instead of answering his question, Elena glared at him. "Why?" she asked.

Damon shrugged, trying to act nonchalant even though he didn't feel that way. "He's hot and the sex is great," he said.

Elena brought her hand up to slap Damon, but he caught her wrist, refusing to let her have her fun and hit him this time. She pulled her wrist free and glared at him again. "I thought we had something," she said. She angrily brushed away a tear.

"What exactly do we have, Elena?" Damon asked. It was actually a half serious question, and he wasn't surprised when she didn't answer. "I know you never stopped loving Stefan," he continued into the silence. "And I know that you were never going to choose me."

"How do you know that?" Elena finally said. "How can you when I don't even know?" She looked so confused that it tugged at Damon's heart.

He forced himself to keep his voice steady. "I knew it when I saw your reaction when Stefan came back, and it's only become more fucking obvious in the past few days." He turned away slightly. "And I'm not going to play that game again. I'm not going to let you play us against each other." He realized as he spoke that he meant what he said. He had seen a few disturbing hints of Katherine in Elena over the preceding months, and the last thing he wanted was to reenact the events of 1864. He could move on, and he was doing exactly that. He cut off any deeper analysis of his feelings for Aedan.

"So you jump into bed with the first warm body you can find?" Elena was clearly furious with him.

Damon hesitated, not sure how to answer that since that was kind of what had happened even if it wasn't why he had _stayed_ in bed with Aedan. He was pretty sure telling Elena when he had actually started sleeping with the other vampire would only make things worse, as would telling her that she had to be blind to have missed that something was going on.

Elena shook her head at his silence. "I don't know why I ever expected anything better of you," she said quietly. She pushed past him, and Damon let her go. He closed his eyes for a moment, knowing he had just screwed things up yet again, but he whirled around a second later when he sensed another presence.

Caroline was looking at him, head cocked to the side. She still looked pale and not quite like herself, but she was awake and on her feet. "So you and Aedan, huh?" she said, and Damon realized that she hadn't been recovered long enough to pick up on their relationship. "I wouldn't have pegged Damon Salvatore for someone who swings both ways," she continued. "But somehow I'm not surprised." The blonde vampire turned away but spun back a moment later. "For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing," she said quietly. "And he is _definitely_ hot." Then she followed Elena from the room.

Damon trudged slowly up the stairs. It was only when he got back to his room and saw Aedan pulling on his clothes that he realized just how badly he had screwed up. Of course, Aedan had heard the whole conversation. He had heard Damon downplay their relationship and imply that he was nothing more than a warm body. He looked up as Damon entered the room, and Damon could see the flash of hurt in his gray eyes even though he covered it up far more quickly and thoroughly than either Damon or Elena could manage.

"I've stayed long enough," Aedan said quietly. "I should go check on my own house."

Damon stared at him, feeling a wave of panic rush through him. "Don't go" was all he could choke out.

Aedan stared at him for a long moment, and Damon thought that Aedan could read every emotion on his face. He didn't know if that was good or bad, but he was feeling far too many emotions to hide them, anyway. Finally, Aedan sighed. "I'll come back, if you want me to," he said quietly. He was out the door before Damon could sort through his mess of emotions enough to come up with an answer.

•••••

Aedan shook his head as he turned his car onto the road out of Mystic Falls. He really did need to check on his house. He had been meaning to make a short trip there for the past two days, but he had been exhausted, not to mention too relaxed and content in Damon's bed to want to leave. His original plan had been to ask Damon to come with him when he did go, but that had been shot to hell that morning. It was just his luck to fall in love with a thoroughly confused vampire, he thought in disgust.

Damon might be struggling with his emotions, but he was hardly a new vampire and he was certainly no innocent. He could sort them out and come to his own conclusions, and Aedan thought that Damon should have damn well figured things out by now. It was pretty clear that Elena Gilbert didn't return Damon's feelings, and Damon would be utterly wasted on a fragile human girl, anyway. Aedan was firmly convinced that Damon belonged with _him_, but he was not going to be Damon's consolation prize, keeping his bed warm until Elena came around.

Aedan thought that Damon had feelings for him – or at least he had thought so until that morning. He didn't remember everything through the delirium of his illness from the werewolf bite, but he was pretty sure that Damon had stayed with him the whole time. And he definitely remembered the way Damon had kissed him when they had realized that he was going to recover. That kiss hadn't been about desire or anything physical; it was pure emotion, relief and desperate joy and maybe even love. And he and Damon had been together almost constantly in the days since. Even though neither had the energy for sex, they had taken comfort in each other's arms. They hadn't talked about anything particularly serious, but big emotional confessions weren't Aedan's style and he didn't think they were Damon's either. He had assumed that Damon was past the point where he was turning to Aedan to escape his pain, but now he wondered if maybe he had been wrong. Tired or not, he would have left earlier if he hadn't thought that Damon returned his feelings, because Aedan was only falling harder for Damon the more time they spent together.

Which was exactly why he wasn't going to sit around and listen to Damon practically deny that there was anything going on between them to placate a human girl. Damon would have to figure out who he wanted to pursue, and in the meantime, Aedan would find other things to do. He hadn't lived for five hundred years without learning patience, after all. He wanted Damon, but he could wait for Damon to come around. And if he never did, well, life sucked sometimes. Aedan had been alone for a very long time, and he could continue to be alone if necessary. With Klaus dead, he was free to go anywhere and do anything for the first time in centuries, he reminded himself, and it was a big world.

•••••

Damon went drinking with Alaric that night, needing to drown his thoughts in alcohol. He wasn't having a bad time – Ric seemed to have finally mostly forgiven him for the whole neck-snapping thing – but he kept thinking about a certain vampire with gray eyes. It would be fun to get drunk with Aedan, he thought, and he suspected that Aedan would like Ric. And Ric could ask Aedan about the far distant past, things that history teachers were into, and they could try to find Ric a girl. Damon was far more absorbed in his fantasy night out than the dull reality of the Grill, and Ric was looking at him a bit strangely. He turned down the four women who hit on him, and he let Ric assume it was because of his feelings for Elena. Then he felt guilty about that, along with everything else. The only solution was more alcohol.

Thus, Damon was pretty drunk by the time he made it home after being thrown out of the Grill because it was closing. He didn't understand why bars closed when they could make so much more money staying open all night, not that he had been paying for his drinks for the past few hours. Damon had compelled the bartender before he could cut him off and limit him to the amount of alcohol that a human could consume without dying. He stared despondently at his big, empty bed before picking up his phone and calling Aedan.

Aedan answered on the third ring. _"I'm asleep, Damon," _he said. He sounded asleep, too. _"Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?"_

"Because you're not here," Damon told him. He thought it was a brilliant response, even if it was a little slurred.

"_Uh huh. Call me tomorrow." _There was a pause while Damon failed to come up with a response to that. _"Good night, Damon."_ Damon heard a click as Aedan hung up the phone.

Damon stared at his phone. Aedan's sleepy voice had triggered some vivid and very pleasant memories of falling asleep and waking up in the other vampire's arms. He had just enough restraint to stop himself from hitting redial, and instead he began to strip off his clothes, fumbling a little with the complications of buttons and zippers. Finally, he was naked, and he fell into bed and into dreams of Aedan O'Reilly.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **_Sorry about the delay in updating this one - I got a bit distracted, but here's a nice, long chapter to reward your patience.  
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**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own _The Vampire Diaries _or Damon. I do own Aedan and the plot of this story._

**Chapter 9**

Damon woke up the next morning alone in bed and unfortunately sober. He buried his head in his pillow as the memory of the previous night came back to him. Had he really drunk-dialed a five hundred year old vampire? He groaned. He was a complete fucking idiot. At least the conversation had been mercifully short, preventing Damon from making even more of a fool of himself than he had by calling for no reason while obviously wasted. And, Damon remembered with a small feeling of hope, Aedan had told him to call back today, so apparently the other vampire was at least still willing to speak to him.

Aedan seemed to be relatively laid-back for a vampire. Between the heightened emotions and the constant bloodlust, vampires were not exactly a stable bunch, but Aedan had put up with quite a bit from Damon. Too bad Damon had clearly gone too far – been too much of an idiot – this time, and Aedan had had enough. Damon couldn't even blame him. Aedan had been right to leave him. The problem was that now that he was gone, Damon finally knew who he wanted.

Damon had once told Elena that he would always choose her, but he hadn't imagined then that anyone would ever actually choose _him_. He hadn't thought that it was possible that anyone could love him, not really, so it had been easy to make promises to the girl who had shown him friendship and helped bring him back from being a worse monster than he had to be. But now he knew who he would choose if he had to make a choice, and this time it wasn't Elena. Elena wasn't who he wanted to chase after and drag back to his bed; Aedan was.

Damon thought that Aedan might have actually loved him, but he had screwed up, as always, and Aedan had left. And now Damon was scared – scared that he had really lost Aedan, that Aedan had realized that Damon wasn't worth all of this. That he wasn't worth loving. Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to rein in the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him.

Damon was lying on his bed contemplating the mess he had made of his life when he heard Stefan approaching his door. He didn't have the heart to dodge his brother this time, so he just stayed where he was and waited for the lecture to commence.

"Damon?" Stefan knocked gently on the door.

"Go away, Stefan."

Stefan ignored him and walked into the room. "I saw Aedan's car has been gone since yesterday," Stefan began. "Did he leave?"

"Obviously," Damon answered bluntly. He didn't bother to sit up.

"Why?" Stefan waited patiently for an answer, and Damon just lay there silently. Stefan cracked first. "What's going on between you two?" he asked.

"Nothing," Damon lied. "It's just sex." Maybe if he told himself that enough times, he would start to believe it.

Stefan clearly didn't believe him either. "You should let yourself feel, Damon," he said. "Don't throw away something good."

Damon finally sat up as anger at his brother replaced his lethargy. As usual, Stefan was missing the point. Lack of feelings was definitely not Damon's problem right now. "Look who's talking, Mr. Self-Righteous," he said. "Why did you turn your emotions back on, Stefan? Because I don't think you wanted to."

Stefan sighed. "You're right. I didn't. They just came back."

Damon nodded. He thought so. "Your switch finally malfunctioned," he said. "Sucks, doesn't it?" Damon desperately wanted all his emotions to go away. He didn't want all the guilt, didn't want to care about any of it or anyone. It was too much.

Damon wasn't even sure if he was sympathizing or picking a fight, but Stefan ignored him either way. Sometimes his brother was like a pitbull on a morality kick. "You've come a long way, Damon," Stefan said. "Now you just have to take the last step."

"Toward what? Humanity?" Damon scoffed. "I've got a newsflash for you, Stefan. You can go to high school as many times as you want – there's no going back."

Stefan shook his head. "Not toward humanity. Toward happiness. If you find something – or someone – that makes you happy, that's what you should go after."

Damon got to his feet and crossed to the window, not looking at his brother. A muscle in his jaw twitched. "You act like it's _sooo_ simple," he said. "And you're fucking full of it." Happiness wasn't for him. It never had been. It wasn't that he hadn't gone after it. He had spent 145 years plotting to get Katherine out of the tomb and sweep her off her feet only to find out that she was never even in there. He had gone after what he wanted, but it turned out it hadn't even been real. He had tried hard to keep things real with Elena, but ultimately she had become a fantasy, too, because Damon knew she loved Stefan more than she loved him. And that was the thing, Damon realized suddenly as he stared out the window at a beautiful sunny day that seemed to mock his misery. What he had with Aedan was real. It was totally unexpected, and Damon hadn't been looking for it, but it was real. He thought about Aedan's body pressed against his in passion or even simple comfort, about gray eyes that sparked with humor.

"If Aedan is what you want, you should go after him," Stefan continued.

Damon shook his head. If only it were that simple. But he was done with advice from his little brother, so he deflected and changed the subject. "Don't tell me this is what you wanted to talk to me about for the past couple of days," he said.

"No," Stefan admitted. "I was going to tell you that you needed to talk to Elena."

Damon laughed bitterly at that. "Yeah, thanks for the advice, little brother."

"You can still fix this, Damon," Stefan said as he left the room and left Damon alone with his thoughts.

•••••

Ultimately, Damon decided he had nothing more to lose, and since he wasn't very good with words, he was actually taking Stefan's advice and driving to Aedan's house. Once again this time he made it to the door, and he bounced impatiently as he rang the bell, torn between wanting to see Aedan and being scared of what would happen next. When Aedan didn't come to the door quickly enough to suit Damon, he rang the bell three more times in quick succession.

Aedan finally opened the door. "Damon," he said, with a look that clearly said that Damon was exactly who he was expecting. Damon figured that Aedan probably didn't know very many people juvenile enough to ring the doorbell multiple times. Or maybe Aedan just knew him.

"Hi," Damon said stupidly. Then before Aedan could say anything, he stammered out more words. He had planned out a whole speech on the drive, but it was gone from his head as Aedan's gray eyes stared at him. He couldn't read what the other vampire was thinking. "I'm an idiot. I do the wrong thing, say the wrong thing." He left out kill the wrong person since at least he hadn't done _that_ yet. "I fuck things up – it's the story of my life. But I don't want to lose you."

Aedan didn't look convinced. "Damon . . ."

"Please," Damon begged, interrupting whatever Aedan had been about to say. "Give me another chance."

Aedan sighed. "Come in." He stepped back and gestured for Damon to enter before blurring across the room to pour two drinks. A moment later, Damon took the drink that Aedan handed him. He still couldn't figure out what the other vampire was thinking, but somehow Aedan had managed to pass him the drink without touching his hand and Damon was afraid that was a bad sign. Aedan sipped his drink and met Damon's eyes. "So can you only use the phone when you're drunk?" he asked, his voice dry.

_Okay, definitely still mad_, Damon thought. This was going to be harder than he had hoped. Life had been so much easier when he didn't care what anyone thought of him. He still didn't care in the slightest what most people thought, but now he did care about a few – Aedan, Elena, Alaric – and he kept making mistakes and having to scramble to fix them. "I'm more persuasive in person," he said. For good measure, he threw in his best flirtatious smile and did his eye thing.

Aedan raised his eyes to the ceiling for a moment at that, but Damon thought he saw a hint of humor when Aedan looked at him again. "Our timing apparently sucks," Aedan said quietly. He continued before Damon could ask what he meant. "I know I should disappear for a few months to let you sort things out." He held up a hand to forestall the protest that Damon was about to make and shrugged, gray eyes rueful. "But I really don't want to, and impulse control has never been my strong suit."

"We have that in common," Damon murmured. He desperately wanted to feel Aedan's lips on his, to be able to touch the other vampire and feel Aedan's hands slide over his own skin, but apparently he still had to rely on words. "Don't disappear," he continued, slightly desperately. "Because then I'd have to chase you and it would get all dramatic and sitcom-y." That was better – less serious.

"Didn't you just chase me back here?" Aedan asked with a slight quirk of his lips.

"Well, maybe," Damon admitted with a smirk of his own. Things were looking up. They were getting closer to their usual banter, and he hoped that meant that Aedan wasn't going to prove to be as good at staying mad at him as Ric and Elena were. He dropped his eyes to Aedan's lips, thinking about closing the distance between them.

Aedan shot Damon an unreadable look and put down his drink. "Let's go out."

Damon tilted his head, distracted for the moment. "Where are we going?" Aedan's house was, after all, kind of in the middle of nowhere.

"There's a bar not too far from here."

"Okay." Damon shrugged. Alcohol always sounded good to him and going out meant spending time with Aedan, which was all he really wanted. "You driving?"

Aedan just nodded, and Damon followed him through his house to a massive garage. The garage was mostly empty, with only two cars in a space big enough for four, and they took the same car that Aedan had driven to Mystic Falls, a late model dark gray Jaguar. Damon had admired the car when Aedan had shown up at his house, and he unabashedly checked it out as they got in. "This doesn't seem like the car of a guy keeping a low profile," Damon commented.

Aedan glanced at him. "It's fast," he said drily, and Damon laughed at that, picturing Klaus chasing after the sports car. Aedan clearly liked nice things, and Damon appreciated that, even if his own tastes ran more to the classic and Aedan's more toward the modern.

Damon settled into the seat as they pulled out of Aedan's long driveway, turning the other way from the route back to Mystic Falls. "So is this our first real date?" he asked teasingly.

Aedan shot him another sideways glance. "I guess so."

Damon grinned mischievously. "Does that mean first date rules are in effect? Like no sex?"

This time Aedan's look said very clearly that Damon better not be serious, and Damon laughed. "Don't worry. I put out on every date," he reassured Aedan with a crooked grin. "Or at least on every good date," he amended. "And when I'm involved, they're all good dates."

Aedan cracked a definite smile at that. "I can't say I'm surprised."

Damon settled back into his seat after that, reassured slightly by that smile. He was breaking through the wall that Aedan had tried to put up between them; now he needed to get past this no touching thing. And, Damon thought as he watched the scenery fly by as they sped along back roads, there was some kind of test behind this plan to go out. Otherwise why not just stay in and have lots of sex in Aedan's big beautiful house? Damon was a bit worried about the prospect of a test since he usually failed tests.

But before he could figure it out, they were pulling into a run-down looking bar in a tiny, one-stoplight town. Damon glanced around. They were definitely still in the middle of nowhere. Why would Aedan want to come here when he had plenty of good alcohol back at his house? "So this is your kind of place?" he asked Aedan.

"Not at all," Aedan answered with a wry smile. "Which is why I could come here with a reasonable likelihood that Klaus wouldn't be looking for me here. At least until you lured him back into the area by uncovering the doppelganger."

Damon grinned at the other vampire's logic. "Sorry," he said somewhat unrepentantly.

"Don't worry. I didn't miss it too much."

Damon noticed that the parking lot wasn't exactly full, although it _was_ still early in the evening. Inside, the bar was no more crowded, and no nicer, than it had looked on the outside. Two women who looked a bit the worse for time and hard living were seated at the bar, and Damon saw one couple seated at a booth against the east wall. A back table was occupied by a group of five loud, boisterous men, and Damon narrowed his eyes as he studied them unobtrusively. He was pretty sure those guys were trouble. Good thing he and Aedan could handle pretty much any trouble they wanted to make. Damon did see a pool table and a dartboard, so he decided he could work with the place. He followed Aedan to the bar and took the seat next to him.

The bartender was a middle-aged man with slumped shoulders and stubble that had gone well past a couple of days. He perked up and hurried over at the sight of Aedan and Damon, however. "Aedan," the man said with what was almost a smile. "Where you been? It's been a long a time."

Aedan just shrugged. "I've been busy. Damon, this is Judd – the owner of this fine establishment. Judd, this is my . . . friend Damon."

Judd turned dark eyes on Damon. "Any friend of Aedan's is welcome here," he said, although Damon didn't see nearly as much welcome in his eyes as in his words. "What'll it be? First drink is on the house."

Damon liked the man better at that. "Your best scotch, then," he said with a smile. He hadn't missed Aedan's slight hesitation over how to refer to him, and that gave Damon a clue about why Aedan had brought him here. Everything that had happened between them had happened in private, and Damon had denied that he had any feelings for Aedan when given the opportunity to come clean. He suspected that Aedan was testing how Damon would behave toward him on a public date. Damon smiled to himself because that was a test he could actually pass. It was only Elena that had thrown him off before, confusing him like she so often did. Damon didn't think of himself as gay – he just liked Aedan – but he certainly didn't care what anyone in this bar thought of him. They could think whatever they wanted; Damon would treat this like the date that he wanted it to be.

Judd had brought their drinks while Damon was thinking, and Aedan resumed talking to the bartender. "Business seems slow," Aedan said.

"Yeah, things have been slow," Judd replied. "You look well – just the same, in fact."

Damon tensed slightly. That was always a dangerous topic for a vampire. He had seldom stayed in one place long enough to be asked it, but he waited to see how Aedan would react. Aedan just shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. "I work out every day," he said. "Exercise keeps the body young. You should try it sometime, Judd."

Damon hid a smirk. He might have to steal that line. It had the virtue of seeming completely plausible, especially since Aedan appeared to be a very fit man. Damon had been admiring the way his t-shirt was just tight enough to hint at the muscles of his shoulders and chest. Aedan also moved like a man with supreme confidence in his body. He wasn't a huge man or built like a bodybuilder, but to someone like Damon who was predator himself and therefore attuned to these things, Aedan clearly looked dangerous. That, Damon knew, was part of the attraction. He found powerful and dangerous very sexy, always had.

Judd and Aedan were still carrying on their conversation. "To late for me to get in shape," Judd said with a snort. His look also said that he might be in on the joke, although Damon wasn't certain. "But it agrees with you. Your friend, too." His eyes flicked to the group of five men at the back table, and he turned on the water at the nearest sink before continuing. "Anybody gives you any trouble, you feel free to cause some trouble of your own. Just try not to tear up the place too bad."

Aedan nodded. "We'll keep that in mind."

Judd nodded and moved away, but he left the water running.

Damon sipped his drink. The scotch was better than he would have expected from the look of the place. He raised an eyebrow as he met Aedan's eyes. "So this is a vamp bar?" he asked, keeping his voice low. Judd clearly had some idea of what Aedan was since he had just implied that Aedan and Damon should take out the local troublemakers.

Aedan shrugged. "I'm not the only supernatural being who comes here. I haven't figured out Judd. He's not a vamp, but I don't think he's just a human either."

"Why doesn't he hire a bouncer?"

Aedan gave a wry smile. "The biggest of those guys at the back table used to be the bouncer. I'm guessing they're vamps who turned him."

Damon shook his head at that. "Shit. So are we gonna help Judd out?"

Aedan shrugged again. "If they pick a fight, we'll give them one." He finished his drink, and Judd turned off the water as he crossed back over to refill both Aedan's and Damon's glasses.

Damon raised his glass. "To tearing the place up," he toasted.

Aedan shook his head slightly, but he clinked his glass against Damon's with a wry smile.

•••••

Damon was only a few drinks in when he decided he'd had enough of this going slow, no touching thing. He leaned over closer to Aedan, his blue eyes capturing the other vampire's gray ones with an intense look before dropping to Aedan's lips. He tilted his head slightly as he met Aedan's gray eyes again. "You know what I've wanted to do ever since you opened the door this afternoon?" he asked, voice low and velvet smooth. He didn't wait for an answer before leaning in further and claiming a kiss. It was anything but a chaste, first date kiss. Damon's tongue demanded entrance to Aedan's mouth, and after a moment's hesitation, the older vampire granted it. Damon pulled away a fraction then, his lips hovering teasingly close to Aedan's before he plunged back in. He brought one hand up to the base of Aedan's neck even as he stroked his tongue against the other vampire's. God, he had missed this – tasting Aedan and the way their mouths moved so perfectly against each other. Damon indulged in a long, slow, deep kiss before finally pulling away, gasping a little for air that he shouldn't need.

Aedan was breathing heavily, too. "Now _that _was persuasive," he admitted. His voice was low and rough, and Damon saw that his gray eyes had darkened under heavy lids.

"I missed that," Damon confessed as an answer.

Humor sparked in Aedan's eyes at that. "It's been a day and a half, Damon."

Damon shrugged lightly. "I'm not a patient man." He was, however, patient enough to pull back for the moment. He had escalated things enough for now, as much as he hated to stop kissing Aedan. "So would you rather lose at darts or pool?" he asked teasingly.

Aedan grinned at him. "Oh, I'm not going to lose."

•••••

Aedan watched as Damon studied the pool table. Damon was a good player, but so was Aedan – as they should be since, as vampires, they both had superior hand-eye coordination – and they had split the first two games. Aedan had to admit that he was also a little distracted. Damon's black shirt provided tantalizing hints of the lean, muscled body underneath, and his dark jeans showed off his perfectly shaped ass every time he bent over the table for a shot. Damon moved with an easy, feline grace, and he seemed more relaxed than Aedan had ever seen him before. It could be the alcohol that had been flowing steadily all evening, Aedan thought, or relief that the threat of Klaus was gone, but either way he liked seeing Damon relaxed and enjoying himself.

Damon sank a complicated combination shot and grinned at Aedan. "That's a sign," he said. "This game is mine."

"Nice shot," Aedan conceded with a smile of his own. The dim light of the bar was creating a gorgeous play of shadows over Damon's face, highlighting his sculpted cheekbones and the dramatic contrast of his dark hair and pale skin. The usual words for an attractive man weren't strong enough for Damon, Aedan decided. He was flat out beautiful.

And he had just missed a shot that he should have made. Aedan gave a smirk of his own. "I might be the one destined to win this game," he teased.

"We'll see about that," Damon countered.

Aedan moved closer to the table, debating between several possible shots. He was in no particular hurry to take his turn, however, especially since he was now standing right next to Damon, so close that he could feel the heat off the other vampire's body. "You seem relaxed," he told Damon.

Damon leaned in even closer and whispered, "I'm on a hot date."

Aedan grinned happily at that. In a move that was just short of full vampire speed, he slipped behind Damon, wrapping his arms around the other vampire and nuzzling at Damon's neck. "Oh yeah? How's it going so far?" he murmured in Damon's ear.

Damon made a purring sound and leaned back into Aedan's body, and Aedan forgot all about his turn at pool. He dipped his head and kissed a spot on Damon's neck that he had bitten before, drawing a moan from Damon. That sound caused Aedan's blood to rush south, and he flipped Damon around and pushed him against the nearest wall, kissing him hungrily. Damon responded immediately, his tongue dueling with Aedan's, and Aedan forgot all about the bar around them, focusing entirely on the way Damon's mouth battled with his and the electricity of their bodies pressed together.

A moment later, however, his vampire instincts screamed out the presence of a threat, and Aedan pulled away from Damon and whirled around. The five vampires that Judd had warned them about had spread out in a half-circle around Aedan, Damon, and the pool table. "Faggots like you aren't welcome here," one of the men declared with a sneer.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Damon glared at the five vampires arrayed around himself and Aedan, feeling a wave of fury run through him. It wasn't even so much their crude, bigoted language, although that would be plenty of justification for his anger, as the fact that they had interrupted one hell of a kiss. And all just because they wanted an end to their eternal lives. Because the funny thing was that Damon knew that the gang thought they had the advantage – five against two, even if they knew that Damon and Aedan were vampires – and they looked all cocky about it. But Damon was damn sure that they didn't have the edge. He had seen Aedan fight, after all, and there was no way these vampires were particularly old, if their idea of a good time was terrorizing a small town bar. So Damon's glare gradually shifted to a smirk as he kept his eyes on the five other vampires.

"Walk away," Aedan said. His voice was quiet but somehow still menacing.

The apparent ringleader laughed, but Damon thought he sounded a bit nervous. "You're kidding, right? This is our territory."

"Not anymore," Aedan replied coolly. "If you walk away and never come back here, we won't kill you."

"We're already dead, buddy," one of the vampires chimed in.

Damon groaned aloud. Such a bad line. "Everyone here is already dead," he said with a roll of his eyes. "And trust me when I say you're about to be a lot dead-er."

One of the vampires tried to surprise him then with a full speed attack, but Damon saw it coming and dodged out of the way, countering with a kick that sent his attacker sprawling. The former bouncer came at him then, and Damon backed away a step. The guy had six inches and probably eighty pounds on Damon, and even as a newbie vampire, he was likely to be strong. He wasn't, however, all that fast for a vampire, and Damon easily avoided his first attack and countered with a punch of his own. He was pleased when his blow sent the giant vampire reeling back into the wall. He was right that he and Aedan had the advantage here, and after the battle against the hybrids, it was kind of a relief to face an ordinary vampire or two again.

But while Damon was dealing with the giant, the vampire he had kicked had gotten to his feet and came at him again. He drove Damon hard into the corner of the pool table, and Damon grunted as the heavy table moved several feet under the force of the impact. That was going to leave a bruise, Damon thought with a wince. He ducked under his attacker's attempt at a follow-up blow, ignoring the twinge in his hip from where he had hit the table, and let his momentum carry him toward the rack of pool cues on the wall. He grabbed one from the rack, hoping he had gotten one of the crooked ones that he had rejected for actual play, and snapped it in two to make a nice, manageable pair of stakes. Behind him, he heard what sounded distinctly like a heart being ripped from a chest, and he grinned at the thought of how much damage Aedan was undoubtedly doing to these guys. He figured it was only fair to let Aedan have three since it was his favorite bar.

Instinct warned Damon that his first attacker was trying to surprise him from his left, and he whirled just in time to drive his makeshift stake directly into the vampire's heart. Damon smirked, pleased with the accuracy of his aim, but he didn't have long to bask in his success before the giant was coming at him again. He seemed to have learned from his first attempt, and he approached more cautiously this time. Damon held his remaining stake lightly in his hand as he watched for a clue to what the other vampire was going to do next. This guy had such an advantage in mass over Damon that he didn't want to end up in close combat. He would rely on his speed advantage instead.

But the giant didn't seem inclined to attack just yet, and Damon was getting bored with eyeing each other. He flashed in to deliver a vicious kick to the giant's knee, and the other vampire grunted in pain as Damon hit his target. Damon made a split second decision then. He grabbed his opponent's arm and flipped him, heedless of the man's weight. The vampire landed on his back with a heavy thud, and Damon drove his stake home with lightning speed. He stepped back as the corpse shriveled to a gray, dead giant of a vampire, feeling the satisfaction of a predator victorious in a fight against a rival. The silence told him that the threat was over and the other vampires were already dead.

He turned around to see Aedan leaning casually against the wall, surrounded by three corpses. Damon could see, and smell, some blood on his lover's hand, but other than that he looked completely unaffected by the fight. Damon glared at him, a bit annoyed that Aedan had racked up three kills faster than he could get two. "You could have helped me out," he said.

Aedan shrugged. "Didn't look like you needed it. Plus I like watching you fight."

All annoyance flowed out of Damon at those words and the hooded look of Aedan's gray eyes. Fighting as foreplay – he could definitely get behind that idea. He met Aedan's gaze and let an answering heat smolder in his own eyes.

Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted by a gasp from behind him. "What are they?" a woman whispered. Her voice shook with fear.

Damon turned around to see that Judd had herded all of the bar's patrons into a corner. They were all staring at him and Aedan with wide, frightened eyes, and Damon stifled a groan. Talk about killing his buzz. What a mess. At least it wasn't a crowded bar.

Judd took a couple of steps toward them. He was staring at Aedan, respect that bordered on fear in his expression. "I knew you were powerful, but I wasn't expecting that," he said. "That was . . ." He stopped, and Damon suppressed the instinct to finish his sentence for him. It was a massacre, and the whole thing had been over in minutes. But there was nothing to be gained by gloating right now. Instead they needed to calm everyone down.

Aedan shrugged casually, apparently of a similar mind to Damon. "I took a dislike to them," he said calmly, waving a hand at the bodies. He pushed himself up off the wall. "They won't be bothering you any more," he added to Judd. "And I think we kept the damage to a minimum."

Damon grinned at that. He picked up the dislodged corner of the pool table and moved it back to its original location. "There – all fixed," he announced. "You might need some new pool cues."

Judd was staring at the bodies now. "Couldn't they turn to dust like on _Buffy_?" he asked.

Damon rolled his eyes. "_Buffy_ isn't real. This is the real world. Bodies stick around after you kill them." He had wished more than once for the convenience of disappearing bodies himself. Damon didn't much care for disposing of bodies, and somehow he always seemed to get stuck with the dirty work in Mystic Falls.

Judd looked at Aedan then. "You'll take them with you when you leave, right?"

Aedan shot a glance at Damon and shook his head. "We'll compel all the patrons, but you can deal with the bodies."

"I'll give you all your drinks for free if you get rid of them," Judd offered.

Aedan just shook his head again. "We have other things to do." He gave Damon another heated look. "I'll pay the tab."

Damon's grin widened at the promise in that look. Not that he hadn't been confident in how this date would end, but there had been that slight fear that Aedan would stay mad at him. "Let's get this finished," he said, impatient to get out of there and get to the sex. He crossed the bar, sticking to human speed, and caught the eyes of the first woman cowering in the corner. "You had a great time tonight, and nothing unusual happened. You'll come back again soon," he compelled her. "And bring friends, if you have any," he added after a moment. Judd could definitely use some new customers. He moved to the next woman as the first one nodded dazedly.

•••••

Damon's gaze fell immediately on Aedan's Jaguar as they left the bar. He had a sudden image of Aedan bending him over the hood of the sleek sports car and taking him right there. He immediately felt his blood rush southward at the thought, and he leaned in close to Aedan, dropping a hand to the other vampire's waistband. "You know, we don't have to wait," he whispered. He glanced suggestively at the car. He couldn't stop himself from tugging Aedan forward and running a hand over the smooth metal. He didn't know where this fantasy had come from, but Damon suddenly wanted to make it come true. He didn't even care that they were in an open parking lot in the middle of town. If you could call this a town.

Aedan looked puzzled for a moment, then his gray eyes widened and darkened as he caught Damon's meaning. "We'd get arrested," he countered, sounding reluctant.

Damon shrugged. "That's what compulsion is for."

Aedan shook his head. "We'd damage my car," he argued. His voice was deeper than usual, and Damon smirked at the awareness that Aedan was definitely sharing his fantasy now. But then Aedan added, "Plus low profile, remember?"

"We just killed five vampires," Damon reminded him. "I think low profile is out the window. And don't forget Klaus is dead now."

To Damon's disappointment, the older vampire shook his head. "Judd will keep tonight covered up, but we can't afford to get careless." He paused as Damon sulked a little. "I do have limits," Aedan said.

Damon smirked at that. "I don't."

Aedan pulled Damon in for a kiss, and he could feel the other vampire's arousal. But instead of flipping him around onto the hood of the car, Aedan pushed him toward the door. "You're going to make me wait?" Damon pouted when they finally came up for air.

"Get in the car," Aedan murmured roughly. "But hold that thought."

•••••

Damon and Aedan practically crashed through the door from the garage into the house. Their bodies were locked together as they devoured each other. Aedan pushed Damon hard into the nearest wall, his hands tearing at Damon's clothes. Damon obliged him, wriggling out of first his shirt and then his jeans. He could feel the hard wall behind his back even as his body arched away from it into Aedan's touch. He wanted Aedan naked, too, and he tried to maintain enough control to get Aedan's clothes off, but he finally just tore Aedan's shirt away with a single rip. Aedan groaned as Damon's mouth found his hard nipple, and the older vampire pulled away just long enough to discard his own pants at vampire speed. Then he was pushing Damon back into the wall, grinding their bodies together.

"Please," Damon moaned. He was so fucking hard, so ready for this, and he cried out as Aedan abruptly lifted him and thrust into him. The surge of pain was lost in the pleasure – or maybe it was part of the pleasure. Damon didn't know and he didn't care. The hard wall behind him and the helpless feeling as every thrust sent him higher reminded Damon of the first time he and Aedan had fucked each other, and that memory only turned him on more, if such a thing was even possible. That had been on the front porch, he remembered, which was sort of a public place, so what was wrong with his parking lot idea, anyway? Then even that thought was gone as Aedan bit him and Damon came hard at the sensation. He was being claimed, and he wanted nothing more than to be claimed by Aedan.

The pleasure seemed to go on and on, and Damon closed his eyes as his body quivered under Aedan's touch. Then Aedan thrust a final time and came inside Damon with a loud cry. He sank to the floor, pulling Damon down with him, and Damon was more than happy to settle there for a moment, skin to skin, both of them slick with sweat and cum.

After long moments of catching their breath in companionable silence, Damon murmured, "Wow." He shifted to stake a claim of his own and kissed Aedan. He smiled at the satisfied look in the other vampire's eyes as he pulled away. "I still think the car would have been hot," he teased.

Damon had just enough time to register the answering mischief in Aedan's gray eyes before the other vampire had grabbed him up effortlessly. Damon actually yelped as Aedan flashed them into another room and bent him over a table. "Oh yeah?" Aedan growled. "Use your imagination." He pinned Damon's hands above his head with one hand and trailed his fangs lightly down Damon's neck and back, drawing a thin trail of blood that he licked away even as Damon's skin knitted itself back together.

Damon wriggled helplessly, utterly turned on by the rough handling. He didn't even need the fantasy of being in the parking lot bent over the sleek hood of the Jaguar, although he could picture the looks on the faces of innocent bystanders as Aedan manhandled him. Damon had been something of an exhibitionist for a very long time, but he had never gone there before, even in his fantasies. After a century and a half as a vampire, there wasn't much that was new to Damon, and he loved that Aedan took his mind and body to new places, new sensations.

Aedan held Damon down with his body, his hands caressing Damon's bare ass. His erection pressed against the sensitive skin of Damon's hip, and Damon marveled at the fact that they could both be ready to go again just minutes after fucking each other like bunnies. Sometimes being a vampire was awesome. He wriggled again, just to generate some friction against Aedan's cock.

"There's a small crowd gathering," Aedan whispered in Damon's ear. "And none of them are going to help you." He slipped first one finger and then a second into Damon's hole. Damon was already stretched out from before, so the fingers were just a tease that drew a loud moan from his lips. "We're going to rock their boring, vanilla lives tonight, give them something to dream about every night for a long time," Aedan added, and Damon moaned again at the thought of a crowd of onlookers turned on by what his lover was about to do to him.

Without another word, Aedan thrust into him, burying himself deep in Damon with a loud cry. Damon gasped as Aedan hit his sweet spot and set a steady pace. He gripped the table hard, wishing he could really dig his fingers into it but retaining just enough awareness to recognize that it was wood. A splinter would spoil all his fun – wood was not the good kind of pain for a vampire – and he thought randomly that Aedan was right that Damon would absolutely have damaged the metal of his car. Then Aedan twisted his body, changing the angle of his thrust, and Damon forgot everything as the waves of pleasure rolling through him somehow deepened. Aedan came hard a moment later, spurting hot liquid into Damon, as they both cried out in ecstasy.

•••••

Aedan wasn't sure his body had ever felt so relaxed and satisfied. He and Damon lay tangled together, both of them boneless, having somehow finally made it to the bed.

"Best first date ever," Damon murmured.

Aedan was secretly inclined to agree, but for some reason he decided to argue. "It wasn't really a first date," he pointed out. "And we went to a crappy bar and got in a fight with five other vampires."

"Foreplay," Damon answered promptly, smirking happily. He stretched up Aedan's body and kissed him lightly before settling his head on Aedan's chest with a contented little purr. Aedan would have bantered back, but he was feeling too sated and happy himself to bother. A few minutes later, Damon was asleep, his body warm and relaxed, draped over him in a way that seemed utterly familiar and utterly right to Aedan. He sighed, on the verge of sleep himself. He was aware that he had caved almost instantly, abandoning his plan to give Damon time and space to figure out what he really wanted. One kiss had pretty much wiped out all of Aedan's resolve. It wasn't his fault, he thought ruefully, that Damon was completely irresistible when he turned those eyes and that smile on full power. And Damon was right that it had been a damn good date.

_Mine_, Aedan thought, tightening his arms around Damon as a surge of possessiveness ran through both his mind and his body. He hoped Damon was serious about choosing him because Aedan felt at that moment that he would tear the head off anyone who tried to take Damon from him. And he wasn't the kind of vampire who tore the heads off human girls out of jealousy. He fell asleep a few minutes later, torn between blissful contentment and fear that he had made a mistake in letting Damon steal his heart.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: ** _Looks like the site is finally back up after acting up again. I'm not entirely confident about this chapter so I'm curious to hear what you think. A warning is probably also in order - this chapter contains consensual bondage fun, so if that's not your thing, you can just read the first part and wait for next chapter. The next big plot twist is coming next chapter, too. . . ._

_Also, I didn't get a chance to respond to reviews of the last chapter thanks to a fun crisis at work, but I did read and appreciate every one - so thank you!  
><em>

**Chapter 11**

Damon woke up first the next morning, and after a few minutes of resting contentedly against Aedan's body, he shifted away enough that he could watch the other vampire sleep. Aedan's sandy blond hair was messy from sex and sleep, and Damon admired his long eyelashes and the full lips that begged to be kissed. His face was rough with stubble, and Damon definitely thought that was sexy. Really everything about Aedan was sexy, he decided.

Like most vampires, Aedan didn't feel the cold, and the sheet that had once been covering him and Damon had slipped down to their waists. Damon let his eyes roam greedily over the lean muscles of Aedan's torso, admiring the definition of his lover's body. His gaze lingered on the scattering of freckles across Aedan's chest, and he smiled as he thought of kissing each and every one of those freckles. Damon was rapidly uncovering all the places that drove Aedan crazy when he touched or kissed them, and he was loving that process of discovery. Aedan looked as peaceful and relaxed as Damon had ever seen him, and Damon thought suddenly that he wanted many more mornings just like this. Assuming there was sex to be had later, of course.

It was a few minutes later that Aedan opened his eyes, and a slow smile crossed his face as he saw Damon watching him. "Morning," he said.

Damon smiled back. "Morning." He was still getting used to waking up with someone that he not only wanted to see again but wanted to spend all day with, someone who mattered to him. Part of him was still waiting for it to be a trick even though Aedan had given him no reason to doubt the sincerity of his interest.

As if Aedan sensed his doubts, he moved immediately in for a kiss. It was a long, tender kiss, the kind that made it clear to Damon that no matter how strong the physical attraction might be, this thing between them wasn't just physical for Aedan. Which was good, because Damon didn't think it was just physical for him, either.

Aedan trailed his fingers gently along Damon's skin, settling at his hip before his lips began to follow the same path down Damon's body. Damon closed his eyes in pleasure as the soft kisses balanced all the aggression and unbridled passion of the night before. He opened his eyes only when Aedan's lips disappeared from his body.

"I could use a shower," Aedan said with a twinkle in his gray eyes. "And I've been waiting to get you in my shower since the last night you spent here."

Damon grinned at that. "_You've_ been waiting," he replied, thinking about his own fantasies in and about Aedan's shower. Time to make some of those come true.

•••••

Damon stared at his phone. One message from Elena. He had heard it ring of course, but he and Aedan had been in the shower, Aedan on his knees with Damon's cock in his mouth, and Damon was not about to interrupt _that_ for any reason. He was actually glad that he had been too busy to answer his phone since he was after all here to convince Aedan that he wanted nothing more than friendship with Elena. The other vampire didn't need to hear a long argument between Damon and Elena – that would not serve Damon's greater agenda of getting Aedan to trust his intentions.

Reluctantly, Damon listened to the message. _"Damon, where are you? I've been looking for you at your house and the Grill since yesterday. I'm really sorry about the things I said, and I miss you. Please come home. I . . . just come home, okay?"_

Damon's hand hovered over the touch screen of his phone as he debated whether to return the call. Elena's voice had sparked a twinge of guilt that he had made her worry, but he couldn't see how the conversation would turn out well. He was willing to forgive Elena for the fight, however, whether it was guilt making him feel magnanimous or his general state of happiness after the previous night and the morning with Aedan. But instead of calling, he sent her a text. _Apology accepted. I'll be home in a few days._ Maybe, he thought to himself. Or maybe he would stay here a bit longer than that. It was nice to feel accepted and not to feel like he had to justify everything that he did. Plus, of course, there was the company and the sex.

A few minutes later, Damon's phone beeped with another message, this one a text from Stefan. _Where are you? Elena's worried._ Damon rolled his eyes. Really, Elena was getting Stefan to do her bidding again? Then he decided he shouldn't be surprised.

After a moment's debate, he decided to reply honestly. _With Aedan. Don't wait up._ Hopefully Stefan wouldn't feel the need to show that message to Elena, Damon thought. Although on second thought, that could be the perfect way to avoid a future awkward conversation. Let Stefan deal with the inevitable freak-out.

He waited for the reply, knowing that Stefan would gloat that Damon had taken his advice. Sure enough, it came quickly. _Told ya so. Will deal with Elena._ Damon had to smile at his brother's response. He could afford to let Stefan feel all smug about this one, and he suddenly really liked the fact that he and his brother weren't at odds for once. That was part of why he had chosen Aedan, and it was already paying off.

•••••

The next three days were quite possibly the best of Damon's life, human or vampire. He and Aedan had sex multiple times a day of course, but they had also spent hours talking. They debated the best movies in the history of movie-making, compared favorite books, and discussed the principles of investing as an immortal. Aedan was smart, he was well-informed, and he had a dry sense of humor that Damon adored. He was more serious and less high-strung than Damon, but just as passionate in his own way. Most of all, it became increasingly clear to Damon that Aedan was just as enraptured with him as he was with the older vampire. That was a new experience for Damon – to chase someone and have them more than happy to be caught, to fall in love and have the other person fall in love right back – and it was fucking awesome. He had been right to want this, Damon thought, and he had no intention of screwing it up now that he had finally found it.

That evening after a healthy dinner of blood with more than a little bourbon on the side, Aedan looked across the table at Damon. "So you said you don't have limits?" Aedan asked.

There was a glint in his eye that Damon liked, and he smirked, picking up the reference immediately. That car fantasy and the memory of their enactment of it over Aedan's table still turned him on. "Try me."

"Do you trust me?" Aedan asked, sounding slightly more serious.

"Yes," Damon answered without hesitation. A question like that almost certainly meant what he hoped it meant – sex games.

"Want to see another part of the house?" Aedan asked mischievously.

"Sure," Damon replied, puzzled by that. Of course, it was a big house, and he had never gotten a formal tour. Although they had already had sex in quite a few different rooms.

Aedan led Damon into another wing of the house and then down a set of stairs into the basement. The basement was neatly finished, and Damon couldn't help but compare it to the slightly dank basement of the boarding house. He doubted that there was a dungeon down here. Although Aedan's tastes – not to mention Damon's own – undoubtedly meant they were headed for somewhere interesting. Aedan stopped in front of a closed door, and Damon stopped, too. He looked around curiously. Nothing exciting yet, although the fun must be behind door number one.

Aedan turned to him. "Take off your clothes," he ordered.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "What about yours?"

"Mine will be off soon enough."

Damon decided to comply. He wanted to know what Aedan had in mind, after all. He stripped off his shirt and dropped his jeans to the floor, stepping out of them. He hadn't bothered with underwear that day since he hadn't planned on actually wearing clothes for very long. He saw Aedan's gray eyes darken as he stood naked before the other vampire. "Like what you see?" Damon couldn't resist asking.

"Very much," Aedan admitted. "Now kneel."

After a moment's hesitation, Damon obeyed. Aedan flashed away from him down the hallway, and a moment later he was back. He stood behind Damon, and a second later, he had wrapped a black silk scarf over Damon's eyes, tying it as a blindfold. "Hey," Damon objected, not sure he approved of this particular game.

"Behave," Aedan ordered. Damon barely heard the other vampire move before Aedan was pulling his arms in front of him and handcuffing them together.

Damon shifted uneasily, testing the metal cuffs. He had said he was up for anything after all, and these seemed to be standard steel so if he wanted to, he could break them easily enough. He cocked his head toward where he thought Aedan was standing, watching him. "What if I snap them?" he asked, testing the boundaries of the game.

Rather than answer immediately, Aedan was suddenly right beside and behind Damon. He lifted the younger vampire to his feet. Then he nuzzled Damon's neck and reached his hand around to stroke down over Damon's abs, heading southward. Damon moaned involuntarily as his cock sprang to attention at the promise of Aedan's touch. Aedan's voice came right in his ear, his breath ghosting over Damon's sensitive skin. "I'll put furry pink ones on you," he whispered. Damon laughed softly at that threat as his body walked a fine line between tension and relaxation.

Aedan led him forward then, and Damon assumed that they were passing through the door that he had been kneeling in front of. _The secret room_, he thought – and apparently he didn't get to see it yet.

They had taken about ten steps when Aedan stopped Damon and stretched his bound hands up above his head. A second later Damon realized that Aedan had hooked the cuffs over something because he was hanging suspended by his hands. His feet reached the ground at least, but he bit back a curse as every vampire instinct reacted against his helplessness. He was blind, naked, and far too exposed in this position, he thought as he squirmed against his bonds. Instinct said that he should snap them right now and get himself out of there, but the problem was that Damon also found himself crazy turned on by being utterly at Aedan's mercy, strung up as his lover's plaything.

A moment later he felt Aedan press against his backside, clearly naked now himself. "Trust me," the older vampire whispered in Damon's ear. His lips trailed down Damon's neck as his hands once again slipped down the length of his body. Damon whimpered as one hand reached his hard cock and stroked along its length. He could feel Aedan's own erection pressed against his hip, and he wasn't sure whether he wanted Aedan to fuck him or bite him or both.

Then suddenly Aedan's touch was gone, and blind and slightly disoriented, Damon could only moan out a protest. He felt cold and exposed again, but a second later, Aedan was back. He licked at Damon's nipple before biting down lightly with blunt human teeth, and Damon's cock jumped. Aedan's hands were on his hips, tantalizing close to where Damon really wanted them, and he forced himself not to beg just yet as Aedan continued to tease his nipples and chest with lips and tongue and teeth for long moments before disappearing again.

He kept that up, flashing in and out in his exploration of Damon's body, caressing and teasing seemingly every inch of him. He had licked up the inside of Damon's thigh and along the underside of his cock only to disappear and resurface a second later with his tongue and hands massaging Damon's ass or his fingers stretching him out. Blind-folded and with his other senses now completely blown, Damon had no idea where Aedan would be touching him from one moment to the next, and the teasing had him close to the breaking point. His body was quivering constantly now, and he felt like he was going to explode at any moment. Every nerve ending in his body was on fire with pleasure, and he was afraid that he no longer even had the strength in his muscles to break the steel holding him. He was completely helpless under Aedan's touch, but he hardly cared if the other vampire would just let him come already. "Please," he begged when his lover's touch disappeared yet again.

Finally Damon felt Aedan's hands gripping his hips again, and he felt the other vampire's breath against his leaking, over-sensitived cock. Then came a welcome heat as Aedan took him fully into his mouth, plying him with consummate skill. "Oh god. Fuck," Damon gasped out, followed by a string of obscenities as Aedan took him to the edge.

Then suddenly that warm mouth was gone, and Damon twisted desperately against his bonds. "Aedan," he pleaded. But before he could lose it completely, he felt the soft puff of Aedan's breath against the back of his neck, and a fraction of a second later, the other vampire had thrust deep inside of Damon. Damon cried out and writhed in ecstasy as Aedan hit his sweet spot perfectly. After all the teasing, it felt so, so good to finally have Aedan inside of him.

Aedan's fingers were digging into his hips as he drove hard into Damon, and Damon saw stars as pleasure blasted through his body. He hung there buffeted by pleasure as Aedan fucked him hard and fast. Then suddenly Aedan stilled, pausing deep inside Damon as Damon felt his lover's hand steal around to begin to stroke his neglected cock. "Fuck," he groaned, wriggling in an attempt to create friction both inside and out. He was long past any control, and it took only a few rough strokes before Damon was coming hard, clenching around Aedan and crying out as his orgasm rocked his body. He threw his head back, and he felt Aedan's fangs slice into his neck even as the other vampire gave a final thrust and came inside Damon. The by-now-familiar sensations only sent him spiraling higher at the feeling of being completely possessed by Aedan, owned in every way that mattered to a vampire.

Damon slumped against Aedan, gasping for unnecessary air as all remaining strength left his muscles. Aedan withdrew his fangs and nuzzled Damon's neck, murmuring a soft endearment as he, too, struggled to catch his breath. They stayed there for a long moment, and Aedan kept their bodies pressed together, his fingers trailing lazily along Damon's abdomen, caressing his skin. But finally he lifted Damon slightly, unhooking him from whatever had held him suspended. He scooped Damon instantly into his arms, and Damon couldn't even stir himself to object as he was lowered onto what felt like a bed.

Aedan's touch was gone for just a second, but then he was back. He unlocked the handcuffs still binding Damon and slipped off the blindfold before drawing the black-haired vampire into his arms. Damon blinked as his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room, but other than that he just relaxed into Aedan's body, feeling too fucked-out and blissful to move. They lay there in silence for long minutes before Aedan whispered, "You're amazing. Perfect."

Damon wasn't sure if the other vampire had meant to say that out loud. He smirked. "Yep," he replied, popping the "p." "The best." He decided he might be able to move now, so he shifted and claimed a deep kiss, trying to make it clear that he thought Aedan was pretty damn amazing himself. "You can handcuff me anytime," he added as he pulled away just slightly and offered a flirty little smile.

"I'll keep that in mind," Aedan replied with a slow smile of his own. His hand stroked over Damon's hip, and Damon sighed a little into the touch. "Although," the other vampire added, "I might have to skip the blindfold next time. I missed being able to see your eyes."

Damon just purred a little at that. Aedan could do whatever he damn well wanted with him because that had been fucking hot. He relaxed back into his lover's arms, feeling his own skin slide against Aedan's, his body still completely relaxed.

It was a few minutes later that Damon finally decided that he felt like checking out his surroundings now that the blindfold was off. He twisted a little in Aedan's arms so that he could see the room. They lay on a large bed that, unlike the one upstairs, had a metal headboard and footboard that Damon decided he looked forward to being tied to in the future. There was a cupboard in the corner that could be filled with toys, and Damon grinned at the rather explicit artwork on the wall in front of him. "So," he said teasingly. "You have a sex dungeon?"

He thought Aedan actually looked slightly embarrassed. "I had a lot of rooms to work with," the other vampire replied. "The realtor who sold me the house suggested that I could use this one for scrapbooking. So obviously. . . ."

Damon interrupted him, cracking up. "Scrapbooking? What the hell even is that?"

Aedan was laughing, too. "I'm not sure. Some human hobby, I assume."

Damon struggled to get his laughter under control. "Scrapbooking," he repeated. "Stefan should take that up. He's a total packrat, writes everything in his journals." _Keeps lists of his ripper victims on the wall_, Damon added to himself, although he didn't think Aedan needed to know that. "And you wouldn't believe how many journals a vampire can accumulate in a century and a half."

"You don't save things?" Aedan apparently was more interested in Damon than in Stefan's habits.

"Nah, I'm a minimalist. No need to hang onto memories." Damon had actually meant to say mementos, but the wrong word came out.

"Yeah," Aedan said softly. "I'm more of a minimalist myself." If he noticed Damon's slip, he didn't say anything.

Damon decided it was time to lighten the mood again. "I notice we didn't come here on the 'first date,'" he teased.

Aedan grinned at him. "I wouldn't want to scare you off, after all."

Damon grinned back. "Well, I have an actual dungeon, so I don't scare all that easily."

Aedan's look said that somehow he wasn't surprised. "Let me guess – you actually use it, too."

Damon's grin widened. "Yep. I lock Stefan up, he locks me up, and we store daggered Originals in there. It's one of the busier rooms in the house."

"Has anyone ever told you that you lead a strange life even for a vampire?"

"Says the guy with the sex dungeon."

"Shut up," Aedan said with a smile, and then he made Damon shut up with deep, toe-curling kiss.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Damon was sitting in Aedan's library reading when his phone rang. Aedan was in another room doing some chores around the house, and Damon was enjoying his days of leisure even as he couldn't help a vague worry about what Stefan was likely doing to his house. Even with his emotions back on, he didn't think his brother could be counted on to take care of the place. The state of Stefan's room was evidence enough of that. Damon thought, not for the first time, that killing Zach might not have been his smartest move. He glanced idly at his phone when the ringtone sounded, expecting another call from Elena, and he was surprised to see Caroline's name. Blondie never called him. With a frown, Damon answered the phone. "What's up, Blondie?"

Caroline sounded even more frantic than usual. _"Damon! Thank god! Are you okay? Where are you?"_

Damon narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" This couldn't be good if Vampire Barbie was worried about his wellbeing. She only tolerated him because of Elena.

"_Elena and Stefan are missing, and your house is trashed, like there was a fight. Elena's phone is there, and Stefan isn't answering his. We thought they got you, too. . . ."_

Damon felt his blood run cold. Elena and Stefan were missing? What the hell had he missed? He tried to keep the fear out of his voice. "Whoa, slow down, Barbie. What are you talking about? Who did you think 'got' me?"

"_The hybrids. They're back, Damon. They came after me and Bonnie, too, but luckily we were studying together so she gave them aneurisms and I ripped their hearts out. There were only two. But it has to have been them."_

Damon cut off Caroline's rambling again. "Shit. Okay," he began, forcing himself to sound calm and as detached as he could manage. "I'm at Aedan's house. We'll be there in a couple of hours – don't do anything stupid until I get there."

He hung up the phone as a cold chill gripped his heart and his mind raced. Here he was playing at sex games while the surviving hybrids had been plotting something. And Stefan and Elena were in danger, if not already dead. He closed his eyes against a rising sense of panic. His brother and Elena – two people at the top of Damon's very short list of people he cared about, and he could have already lost them both. And he hadn't been there to protect them.

Aedan walked into the room then. "We'll be where in a couple of hours?" he asked.

His voice had its usual slightly amused tone, but Damon barely heard him. "Fuck," Damon cursed. He picked up the chair he had been sitting in and flung it against the far wall.

Aedan barely glanced at the now-broken chair or the good-sized hole it had made in the wall, and his gray eyes filled with worry as he watched Damon. "Damon, what is it?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

Damon whirled to face him, eyes wild. "It's the hybrids," he said. He had forgotten all about Klaus's threat that his hybrids would avenge his death. Except they were supposed to come after him, not Stefan and Elena. "Why didn't they come after me?" he asked. His voice was desperate, and his wide blue eyes pleaded with Aedan for an answer.

Aedan may not have understood what was going on, but he read the panic in Damon's eyes. He crossed the room and gently brought his hands up to clasp the sides of Damon's face, stroking lightly with his thumbs. "It's okay, Damon," he said. "Whatever it is, we'll fix it, okay?"

Damon calmed slightly as he gazed into those gray eyes. He wasn't alone in this. That was something. "All of the hybrids were sired to Klaus," he began, as his panic and fury subsided enough that he could explain. "And he told Katherine that they were ordered to kill me if anything happened to him. That's why Stefan sabotaged our last plan to kill Klaus – to save me. I didn't even think that the order would still be in effect," he said, talking more to himself now than to Aedan. "But why aren't they here? They were supposed to come after me."

"They probably couldn't find us," Aedan answered after a moment. "The location of this place is a pretty carefully guarded secret, after all."

"I found it," Damon said. There was a touch of his usual spirit back in his voice, and Aedan smiled at that.

"You and Katerina found it," he replied. "You know the rules don't apply to her."

"Katherine," Damon said thoughtfully, any teasing about Aedan's secret hide-out already forgotten. "I need to call her, see if they went after her, too. Or if she knows anything," he added.

"You said we need to go somewhere," Aedan reminded him.

"Yeah, Mystic Falls," Damon said. "That was Vampire Barbie on the phone, and she said that Stefan and Elena are missing. There's a chance they're still alive. . . . I have to go back." He realized then that he was asking Aedan to help him find Elena, the very person that he saw as his rival for Damon's affections. Damon knew that he had already made his choice – as much as he cared about Elena, he had no intention of giving up what he had with Aedan – but he didn't know if Aedan would believe him. And he wouldn't blame the other vampire if he still had doubts.

Aedan shook his head. "Don't look so worried. Of course I'll help." If he had any doubts, he kept them well hidden. He ran his hand along Damon's neck gently. "If we have to, we'll hunt down every hybrid that Klaus ever created."

Damon met Aedan's gray eyes, seeing real concern there. "Thank you," he said softly. He pulled Aedan in for a kiss. He kept it light and quick, knowing they didn't have time to spare, but he wanted Aedan to know that his feelings weren't going to change. And Aedan's promise to help gave him hope because if they had taken down Klaus, then they could accomplish just about anything together.

Damon's thoughts jumped right back to the problem at hand as he pulled back from the kiss, his mind spinning. "Why did it take them this long?" he asked. "I mean if they were ordered to kill me – or all of us – then why wait?"

Aedan paused, looking thoughtful. "Maybe they thought they had," he said slowly. "If they knew you'd been bitten . . ."

Damon picked up the thought. "Then they would have expected me to die, just like we did. You and Stefan and Caroline, too. They must have come back to Mystic Falls and seen that we all survived."

"So they came up with a new plan, but by the time they went after you, you had come here," Aedan finished. He abruptly switched to the practical. "Do you want to drive?"

Damon hesitated, his mind still working furiously. "No," he said reluctantly. "We should take your car. If they're watching the roads, they'll be looking for my Camaro." He hated to leave his car, but he also wanted to get back into Mystic Falls undetected if at all possible.

Aedan nodded. "Smart," he said. "We can take my truck since they might have seen the Jaguar at your house. I'll be ready to go in five minutes." He started to move toward the bedroom before turning back. "Your life is never boring, is it?"

Damon had to smile slightly at that. "Nope," he agreed. "Boring hasn't been a problem."

•••••

Damon called Katherine as they sped back to Mystic Falls in Aedan's second car, a sleek black midsize SUV.

She answered on the second ring. _"Damon, miss me already?"_

"Not exactly, Kat. Seen any hybrids lately?"

Katherine sounded suspicious. _"No. Should I have?"_

Damon forced his voice to stay calm. "Klaus' hybrids came back to Mystic Falls. They got Stefan and Elena."

"_They're following through on his threat," _Katherine said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, that's what we think, too." Damon rubbed a hand over his eyes tiredly. He should have been there to protect Elena. And his brother.

Katherine was apparently thinking along similar lines. _"Why didn't they get you? You were the original target, after all."_

Damon sighed. "I wasn't there. I was with Aedan. We're on our way back to find them, but I _thought _you might like a warning that the hybrids are looking for revenge on everyone who took Klaus down."

"_I'll watch my back."_

"Katherine," Damon began, not sure whether he wanted to ask for her help, but she hung up before he got another word out. He frowned down at the phone, wondering if she would show up on her own. Stefan was in danger, after all.

He was still silently debating their next move when his phone rang. The screen said _Stefan_, and Damon felt a surge of hope. Maybe his little brother had gotten away. He wasn't an entirely incompetent vampire after all, especially now that he was finally on a human blood diet. He fumbled to hurriedly answer the phone. "Stefan?" he asked.

But his heart sank at the sound of an unfamiliar laugh. "Not quite," a deep voice rumbled. "But from your tone I gather you were expecting that. This is Damon Salvatore, I presume?"

"The one and only," Damon replied, forcing his voice into its usual sarcastic tone. He couldn't afford to let the hybrids know just how panicked he was.

"We have your brother and the doppelganger," the voice continued. "And we're prepared to offer you a deal. Turn yourself over to us, and we will release the doppelganger alive and reasonably unharmed."

Damon's heart sank. That didn't sound very promising. "What about Stefan?"

"He dies either way. He betrayed Klaus. But you can save the girl that you supposedly love so much."

Damon thought he heard muffled sounds in the background of the phone call. It sounded like a woman trying to speak through a gag. His eyes met Aedan's. "Elena?" he mouthed silently, and the other vampire nodded in response. He didn't hear any signs of Stefan, however. He stalled. "Release them both," he said. "And I might not kill you."

"This isn't a negotiation," the voice said. "I don't know how any of you survived before, but you're as good as dead. You can't run forever. This way you can save the girl. I wouldn't mind letting her live – she's kind of our mother, after all – but it would be easy to kill a human like her. One little slip, a momentary loss of control . . ."

Damon clenched a fist in anger. What a sick fucker. And he didn't know Damon very well if he thought Damon would run – or turn himself over without a fight. But for now, the best bet was to agree to the deal to make sure the hybrids didn't hurt Elena. "Okay," he said, trying to sound reluctant and scared. "Just don't hurt her. When and where do we do this?"

"Tomorrow night. I'll call you with the location." The man hung up.

Damon stared at his phone. "Fuck," he cursed, slamming a hand into the dashboard.

Aedan was silent for a moment. Finally, he spoke. "Tomorrow night gives us some time. We'll find them, Damon."

Damon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Why couldn't we hear Stefan?" he asked.

"It doesn't mean anything," Aedan answered. "They could be keeping him vervained, or in another room. Keep the prisoners separate."

Damon nodded slowly, accepting the hope that Aedan was holding out to him. "Or he could just be acting like a stoic idiot," he suggested. That would be just like Stefan, trying to be the martyr of the situation as usual. Damon couldn't bare the thought that he might lose his brother, and he tried to suppress that fear as they sped toward Mystic Falls.

•••••

Caroline and Bonnie were waiting for them at the boarding house when Damon and Aedan arrived. Damon skipped any preamble or other greetings. He never had been much for social niceties. "Did you find them?" he asked bluntly. A glance around the room showed him that his living room really was trashed, with several antique lamps lying in pieces on the floor and even a broken table. Stefan had at least put up a fight. Under any other circumstances, Damon would have winced at the mess, but he was more concerned about the safety of his brother and Elena at that moment.

Bonnie shook her head. "None of my locator spells are turning up anything. Either they have a witch too or . . ." She didn't finish, and Damon knew she was afraid that Elena and Stefan were already dead. Or, in Stefan's case, more dead.

"Elena's still alive, or she was an hour ago," he said bluntly. "They called with demands. If I turn myself over to them tomorrow, they'll release Elena."

"What about Stefan?" Caroline asked. Damon was a little surprised that she wasn't singularly focused on Elena. He sometimes forgot that Stefan and Blondie had been friends before his brother went off the rails with Klaus.

"They said they won't release him," Damon replied. He forced his voice to remain calm. "They want revenge for Stefan turning on Klaus."

"So what do we do?" Caroline asked. "You have a plan, right? I mean, you always have a plan."

Damon shook his head. He wished he had a plan. "Well, we have a day to figure out where the hybrids are keeping Elena and Stefan. If we don't find them, we go through with the exchange. You guys can get Elena out of danger and come back for me."

"What if they stake you right away?" Aedan objected.

Damon shrugged. "I doubt they will. In my experience, werewolves are big on torture. Right, Caroline?"

Caroline flinched, and Damon suddenly felt bad for reminding her of her own bad experience with werewolves. Well, maybe it would help motivate her to come up with some ideas.

Aedan was looking back and forth between the two younger vampires. "You two have both been tortured by werewolves?" he asked, sounding slightly incredulous. Damon just shrugged again in response. "Why any of you stay in this town is beyond me," Aedan commented with a shake of his head. Then his voice turned more serious. "Our odds are better if we find them first. That way we stage a rescue on our terms."

Damon could feel his frustration beginning to bubble to the surface. "Agreed," he said. "But easier said than done, apparently." He glared at Caroline and Bonnie and snapped, "I don't suppose either of you two thought to question the hybrids that attacked you before you killed them?"

Caroline cowered a little, but Bonnie glared right back at him. "Not all of us think in terms of elaborate kidnapping schemes and evil revenge plots, Damon," the witch said.

"We were just trying to defend ourselves," Caroline chimed in, clearly trying to diffuse an argument between Damon and Bonnie. She glanced between the two and then added, "My mom is looking for any suspicious activity around town and over the police radios, but so far the hybrids are keeping a low profile."

Damon was about to snap at the two girls again when he felt Aedan rest his hand lightly on his shoulder to calm him. Damon leaned into the touch slightly, letting Aedan anchor him and give him strength. He saw Bonnie narrow her eyes at that, and he knew the cat was probably out of the bag with her but he hardly cared. He was with Aedan, and the whole world – or at least all of Mystic Falls – would know about it soon enough. Assuming that they could pull off this rescue and defeat the hybrids again, of course.

Bonnie spoke quietly, sounding more conciliatory. "Damon, I can try the locator spell again using your blood. Since you and Stefan are blood-relatives, it might strengthen the spell, assuming that the same principles apply to vampires and humans."

Aedan looked doubtfully at Bonnie. "You don't know?" he asked.

Bonnie glared at the vampire defensively. "I'm still new at this, okay? I'm fine if I'm just following someone else's instructions – like your spell to kill Klaus – but improvising and developing new spells are still a bit advanced for me. I'm doing the best I can, believe me. Elena is my best friend."

Caroline touched Bonnie's arm soothingly and glared at Aedan. "Nobody doubts you, Bonnie," she said.

Damon saw Aedan make a small gesture of frustration beside him, and he couldn't help but smile slightly. "Welcome to Mystic Falls, home of semi-competent teenaged supernaturals," he snarked. It was about time someone else learned what Damon had been going through for the past year and a half.

Caroline glared at him. "You're not helping, Damon," she said.

•••••

An hour later Damon stood in the library, staring into the fire and trying to come up with some kind of plan. The locator spell using his blood hadn't worked either, and Bonnie was busy searching through her grimoires for any other spells that might help. Caroline and Alaric were working on some other scheme, but Damon had needed a break from it all. He wasn't much of a team player, after all, and the truth was that he missed his brother already. As much as he and Stefan had often been at each other's throats, they had also often worked together to protect Elena. And even when Stefan had been with Klaus, Damon had always been certain that his brother was out there and that he would eventually get him back, even if it took decades. Now, he was scared that Stefan might already be dead.

Damon heard Aedan come up behind him, but he didn't turn around. As though Aedan could sense what Damon needed, the older vampire slipped behind Damon and wrapped his arms around him. Damon sighed and leaned back slightly, closing his eyes briefly. He wouldn't have accepted such comfort from anyone else – hell, no one else would have dared to offer it – but Aedan's touch seemed an offering of strength and solidarity, a reminder that he wasn't alone. Damon suddenly very much wanted Aedan to understand his relationship with his brother.

He opened his eyes a moment later and began speaking, his voice soft. "Stefan and I died at the same time, shot by our dad." Aedan's arms tightened at that, and Damon felt the other vampire's surprise and horror in his slight intake of breath, but he pressed on, letting all the scorn that he felt for his younger self seep into his tone. "I was such an idiot. I was so in love with Katherine that I wanted to be a vampire to spend forever with her. But when we woke up in transition, I thought she was dead, and I was going to die too rather than become a monster. It wasn't even really a choice; there was no doubt in my mind. But then Stefan went off and drank, killed our dad actually." Damon's voice trailed off at that. In his mind, he could see the girl that Stefan had brought him, smell her blood, hear his brother enthuse about the wonders of being a vampire – all like it was yesterday. "Stefan brought me a girl, practically forced me to drink and complete the transition, and in return I promised him an eternity of misery."

"Damon," Aedan began softly, but Damon interrupted him before he could go on.

"Last year Stefan actually apologized. He told me he made me turn because he didn't want to be alone." Damon scrunched his eyes closed again and took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "I don't know what I'm going to do if he's gone. I don't know how to be alone either," he admitted. For all the time that he and Stefan had spent apart, all the years that Damon had tormented Stefan, he knew that he had never been entirely alone as a vampire.

"You won't be," Aedan said softly in his ear, his arms still wrapped around Damon to offer physical comfort. "We'll get your brother back." Damon knew Aedan couldn't really make that promise, but he heard another promise in the other vampire's voice as well, a promise that Aedan wasn't going anywhere regardless of what happened. It was more than a small comfort to have Aedan's strong arms surrounding him, to know that someone cared and would be there for him.

Both of them were silent for a long while then, staring at the flickering flames. Finally, Aedan added, "You've been lucky, you know."

Damon had to nod. "I know," he conceded. He could only begin to imagine how much Aedan must have been alone over five hundred years as a vampire. "Did you have any siblings?" he finally asked.

He could almost feel Aedan's nod of assent. "I did. Two brothers and two sisters who survived, and two others who died as infants. I was the oldest."

Curious, Damon asked, "What happened to them after you became a vampire?"

Aedan's voice was light, betraying little emotion. "They went on with their lives. I had to leave when I was turned – I didn't have my ring then." He held up his hand, and Damon almost automatically reached out to touch the large ring with the small lapis lazuli stone on Aedan's finger. Like his own ring, it was made to look like a family crest. "So there would have been no way to hide what I had become. People believed in the supernatural back then, in demons and devils that could walk amongst them and possess people, so we had to be very careful as vampires. It was many years before I could go back and watch my siblings from the shadows." He shrugged. "I kept track of their descendants for a couple of generations before I became consumed by vampire affairs."

Damon wanted to hear more, but their conversation was interrupted by a quiet knock at his front door. He pulled away from Aedan and met the other vampire's eyes in surprise. They weren't exactly expecting anyone – pretty much everyone was already there in the house. By silent agreement Damon flashed over to the door even as Aedan stationed himself just around the corner. He doubted the hybrids would knock if they were going to come after him, but it didn't hurt to be careful. He opened the door. "Katherine?" he said. "What happened to you?"


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **_I know it's been kind of a long time since I updated this story, but I promise I have been working on it. It's just been slow going, for some reason. But I'm back, and as a reward for your patience, this chapter is a long one. _

**Disclaimer: **_ I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters from the show. I do own Aedan and the plot.__  
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**Chapter 13**

Damon thought that Katherine looked disheveled at best, and he could count on one hand the number of times that he'd seen her look disheveled in 170 years. Outside of the bedroom, of course, and he had tried hard to suppress all thoughts about Katherine in the bedroom since the last time she had broken his heart. Her curly hair was mussed, her jacket sleeve was torn, and she had blood on both her skin-tight jeans and her leather jacket. "Wait, let me guess. You ran into some hybrids?" Damon asked.

Katherine glared at him. "Yes," she admitted. "Four of them came after me not too long after we hung up. Thanks for the heads-up – they might have had a chance if I hadn't been expecting them."

"Please tell me you didn't kill all of them," Damon said. They desperately needed a source of information.

"How stupid do you think I am?" Katherine gestured toward her car. "The survivor is in my trunk, although I'm pretty sure he's already told me everything he knows. He was quite accommodating, really."

Damon followed Katherine out to her car, and she opened the trunk to reveal an unconscious, bloody man bound with ropes. "What did you give him?" Damon asked with interest.

Katherine shrugged. "Vervain. Works on hybrids, too, since they're part vampire, and luckily I always have some with me." She gestured at Damon. "Well, pick him up. He'll be more secure in your basement."

Damon was tempted to tell her to do it, but he _had_ absorbed a bit of chivalry growing up in the nineteenth century. He lifted the hybrid out of the car with one arm and tossed the body over his shoulder, hoping it wouldn't bleed on his clothes. Just because he was a vampire didn't mean he had to be covered in blood all the time.

Aedan was watching from the door, and he nodded to Katherine even as he looked at the hybrid with interest. "Katerina," he said. "We wondered if you'd be joining us." His tone was chilly.

Katherine tilted her head. "Don't read too much into it. I don't like to leave any loose ends."

"No, you never have," Aedan replied, and Damon heard some definite tension underlying that exchange. Not for the first time, he wondered about the history between the two older vampires, but he kept his mouth shut. Damon carried the hybrid down the stairs to the basement, and both Katherine and Aedan followed. He opened the door to the basement cell and tossed his burden inside. Then he frowned as he saw a potential problem.

Aedan was looking at the same thing Damon was. "Is that Rebekah?" he asked. "You weren't kidding about the Originals in the basement, were you?"

Damon couldn't help but smirk. "Would I kid about something as serious as dungeons?" he teased. His blue eyes sparkled as they met Aedan's more serious gray ones, and he could read in Aedan's expression that he too was thinking back to their exploits of the previous night. After a mental reminder that they weren't alone, Damon broke the mood and asked curiously, "Did you know her?"

"Yes, centuries ago. She was usually with Klaus."

Katherine glanced between the two of them, interrupting any further details that Aedan might have offered. "If you two are done flirting, can we get on with this?" She sounded annoyed.

"I don't know what to do with her," Damon admitted, ignoring Katherine. "As you can see Elena quite literally stabbed her in the back, so she's likely to be pissed about that if we wake her up. Plus we all conspired to kill her brother, and she might decided to take exception to the whole thing." He paused. "Maybe I should get her a coffin? Klaus might have actually had the right idea there."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "For now, can't we just move her to another room?"

Damon debated for a moment before picking up Rebekah's body and moving her to the laundry room, a couple of doors down. It wasn't the most secure place to store a body, but she was safely dead as long as the dagger remained in her heart. He would figure out a more permanent solution later, and he didn't expect to be holding an unconscious hybrid for very long anyway. When they were sure that the hybrid was no longer useful, they would simply kill him.

Damon double-checked that the cell door was locked before following Aedan and Katherine back up the stairs. Alaric, Bonnie, and Caroline were waiting for them at the top. "What was that all about?" Ric asked with a curious glance at Katherine.

"Katherine caught us a hybrid," Damon answered. "And she thinks she knows where the rest of them are holed up." Then he looked at Katherine, realizing that she hadn't exactly filled him in on any details yet. "Right?"

"Yes, Damon," Katherine said with one of her signature eye rolls. "They've occupied a house just outside Fell's Church. That's where they're holding Stefan and Elena."

Ric frowned. "So should we go after them now, before the hybrids realize that the guys they sent after Katherine failed?"

Katherine smirked. "It's a funny thing about text messages – you never really know who sent them. Wolfie down in the basement sent a text that they killed me but will be delayed getting back because of their injuries."

Damon grinned. Having Katherine on their side certainly had its advantages. "That should buy us a little time," he said.

•••••

Aedan sat back and watched as Damon, Katerina, and the others went over the information that she had tortured out of the hybrid. He enjoyed seeing the way Damon's mind worked, seeing him work through their options for a plan at least two steps ahead of everyone except Katerina. Smart _and_ sexy, not to mention funny. It was a perfect combination as far as Aedan was concerned.

Unfortunately, the whole situation went against Aedan's instincts. Damon was putting himself in danger to save Elena and Stefan, and the vampire in Aedan wanted to take Damon away someplace safe, someplace where the hybrids would never find them. Intellectually, he knew that Damon could handle himself, and he knew how much both Stefan and Elena meant to his lover. But Aedan really only cared about Damon.

At least they had found a better option than Damon's original plan of turning himself over to the hybrids and hoping they decided to torture him rather than stake him immediately. Aedan would have put a stop to that idea one way or another, but he could go along with the current plan that seemed to be along the lines of hitting the hybrids' base hard and soon. He ignored the little voice that still said that he should get Damon out of there. Running from Klaus for centuries had been one thing, but Aedan didn't care for the idea of running from Klaus' hybrid minions. No, he would help take them out, and then he would have Damon to himself again with one less threat to worry about. He shook his head and tuned back into the discussion of their evolving plan.

"So when do we launch this attack?" Alaric was asking.

No one answered immediately, so Aedan spoke up. "Dawn," he said. "That's when sentries are least alert and half the enemy is usually asleep."

Damon shot him a slightly surprised look. "Good point," he said with a grin. "Dawn it is."

•••••

Damon glanced around the room at his odd little army, waiting to hear the final details of the plan. "Okay," he began. "Two teams. Aedan, Caroline, and Bonnie – you get Elena out of there. Katherine and I will go after Stefan. Ric, someone has to drive the getaway car, and you're the only human around here so . . . sorry, buddy." Ric didn't look happy about his role, but he nodded. Damon had thought carefully about these pairings. He didn't entirely trust Katherine, but if she cared about anyone involved, it was Stefan. He wasn't convinced that she had the slightest concern for Elena, and balancing the "teams" meant separating her and Aedan. Bonnie, on the other hand, hated vampires, so she would be most motivated to rescue her best friend.

Aedan immediately shook his head, however. "Damon, you're the hybrids' primary target. You shouldn't be paired with just Katerina."

Katherine sounded annoyed. "Did you forget that I'm older and stronger than you, Aedan?"

Aedan's gray eyes were unflinching as he faced Katherine. "Do you really think a couple of decades makes any difference when you're as old as we are? Any time you want to test your theory, I'm game."

Caroline was staring at both ancient vampires with wide eyes. Damon thought that would be some fight to watch, as long as it wasn't to the death or anything. His money would be on Aedan, despite the age disadvantage. Katherine was more of a schemer than a fighter, after all. He was a bit annoyed with Aedan questioning his plan, but some part of him was also afraid that the other vampire might be right. It had been only a few short months ago that Katherine had admitted to trading his life for an escape from the tomb. She couldn't even be bothered to hint to him that he shouldn't be the one to use the dagger on Elijah, Damon remembered. She might be acting like she was firmly on their side, but he knew better than to trust appearances with Katherine.

When Katherine didn't answer immediately, Aedan continued. "But that's not my objection. I've known you for four hundred years, Katerina. You'll abandon him in a second if things get tough, and you know it." He glanced at Damon. "Both of you know it."

Katherine just shrugged. "You wound me," she said, although her tone was more pouty than angry.

"What's your history with Katherine anyway?" Damon asked his lover, stalling for time – and information.

Aedan's gray eyes met Damon's. "We met in the early 1600s and traveled together for a time. We weren't very compatible – we butted heads constantly."

Katherine interrupted him. "Oh, we had some good times, too," she interjected. Damon could tell from Katherine's little smile that this was when she and Aedan had slept together. At least it was four hundred years ago, he thought to himself, suppressing a surge of jealousy.

Aedan continued, ignoring Katherine. "She tracked me down again in the early 1820s, here in the States. She had heard about my plans to kill Klaus, and she was trying to find out what I knew."

Katherine smiled again as she added, "And you wouldn't tell me a thing."

Aedan did look at Katherine then. "I knew you by then, Katerina. I wasn't about to trust you." He turned back to Damon. "And sure enough, she betrayed and double-crossed me and left me for dead in an ambush."

Katherine shrugged, looking unrepentant. "It was the best way to ensure that I got away. I always did wonder how you got out of there alive. I didn't think any of you would survive."

Aedan's eyes flashed angrily at that. "No one else did. I lost friends that day, Katerina. A couple of people that I thought were your friends, too." He gave Katherine a hard stare before turning back to Damon. "You know you can't trust her," he said, gray eyes looking beseechingly into blue. "Put the girls with her and they can watch out for each other."

Damon hesitated, torn between his original plan and Aedan's obvious concern for him. Damon had never put much stock in self-preservation, had seldom really cared whether he lived or died when Stefan or Elena was in danger, and it was odd to realized that someone actually cared that way about _him_. "Okay," he finally conceded, looking only at Aedan. "You and I will go after Elena."

•••••

Damon and Aedan approached the hybrids' house at dawn, keeping to a small stand of trees and moving as silently as possible. Damon knew that Katherine, Caroline, and Bonnie were headed toward the back door at the same time, supposedly cloaked by a new spell that Bonnie had found. They would be headed down to the basement to find Stefan while Damon and Aedan rescued Elena from the front of the house, where their hybrid prisoner had guessed that she would be kept. Their informant hadn't remembered any human inhabitants of the house, and it showed up as a foreclosure online, so they were betting that the vampires would be able to get in. If not, they would have to switch to plan B, and Damon was afraid that things would get messy. Or messier, because this was already too complicated to go smoothly.

Two hybrids were posted by the front door, and they both looked half-asleep, just as the rescue party had hoped for with a dawn attack. They were armed, however, and that was definitely a bad sign. Damon met Aedan's eyes and gestured toward the guards. Aedan nodded back in silent communication, and then they were both flashing across the yard at top speed. The two hybrids finally heard them coming then, but they reacted too slowly and first Aedan and then Damon had reached the porch before the hybrids could draw their guns.

Damon heard the telltale squishy sound as Aedan ripped a heart out of his man even as he reached his own target. Damon's guard had time to fire his gun, but Damon was no longer in front of him and the bullet headed harmlessly toward the trees in the distance. Whatever time the hybrid might have had to defend himself was spent drawing and firing his weapon, however, and Damon's hand found his heart even as the hybrid tried to turn to face him. As he watched the body fall lifelessly to the porch, Damon shook his head at the stupidity of relying too much on a weapon like a gun in a fight with a vampire.

Aedan had picked up the gun that had belonged to his dead hybrid, and Damon watched as the older vampire clicked it open to reveal the bullets. "Wood," he mouthed silently, and Damon nodded back. He had expected nothing less, although truthfully he hadn't expected guns at all. Guns were a human thing. He guessed that the hybrids must be feeling desperate since even their bites hadn't worked on the vampires. He watched as Aedan crushed the weapon easily in his hand, and Damon grinned before doing the same to the gun that his hybrid had carried.

They approached the door, then, one on each side, bodies plastered to the wall in case the door opened abruptly. Damon was well aware that the gunshot would have given away that something was up, and he expected more hybrids – and probably more guns with wooden bullets – inside. He reached out and tried the doorknob. His hand left a smear of hybrid blood on the knob, but it turned and Damon pushed it open slightly. There was no sound from inside the house. Carefully, Damon stretched out his foot to check for the barrier that might keep them out of the house and ruin the entire plan, but to his relief, his foot encountered no resistance. He nodded at Aedan and mouthed, "We're good."

Damon shoved open the door and threw himself inside. He dropped into a dive and roll as he saw three hybrids with guns trained on the door. One fired, too slow to hit Damon. The absence of any sound behind him told Damon that Aedan had delayed his entrance, just as they had planned. Damon rolled to his feet ready to start the fight, only to find two guns trained on him. He raised his hands in reluctant surrender as the third hybrid, the one who had fired at him already, turned to join his wolf-friends. Damon knew he couldn't dodge three bullets fired by three hybids who were almost as fast as he was. Luckily, he was betting he wouldn't have to, especially since their attention was all on him now.

"Damon Salvatore. Just the vampire we've been looking for," one of the hybrids said with a smarmy grin. "Thanks for walking right into our trap."

Damon snorted. "Tell that to your dead friends outside."

The hybrid shrugged. "Collateral damage," he said.

"Clearly, you guys are close," Damon snarked. "What, being sire-bound to the same dead freak didn't make you all besties?"

"Shut up," the first hybrid said in response.

_Clever_, Damon thought sarcastically. He glanced at the two hybrids who had remained silent, checking for any signs of division in the ranks. He didn't see any, so he changed his tact. "What's with the guns?" he asked. "Kind of cheating, if you ask me."

Before the hybrid could answer, Damon saw a blur of motion, and he threw himself at the closest hybrid even as Aedan hit the leader. Damon knocked the gun out of the hand of his target, sending the hybrid flying back into the wall, but the third hybrid had kept his cool. He fired, and Damon felt the excruciating burn of a wooden bullet burying itself in his left shoulder. He fell, twisting instinctively toward the new threat just in time to see Aedan discard the body of the leader and move, impossibly fast, to snap the neck of the hybrid who had shot Damon. The gun was still smoking as it fell from limp fingers.

Damon forced himself to ignore the pain in his shoulder, and he turned to face the remaining hybrid. He was getting up from where he had landed from Damon's blow, and Damon was suddenly aware that the man's discarded gun was lying by his right hand. Talk about lucky breaks. He scooped up the gun and fired, feeling no guilt for using the hybrid's stupid weapon against him. It had been a while since Damon shot a gun, but as a wealthy Southerner, he had grown up with a gun in his hand – Giuseppe Salvatore had liked his hunting, for sport only of course – and Damon had served in the Confederate army. Vampire reflexes and modern technology only made things easier. His aim was true, and the hybrid fell dead with a wooden bullet in his heart.

Aedan looked surprised and impressed. "Nice shot," he said.

Damon would have shrugged except for the pain. "Gun technology has improved since I was alive. These things are easy to shoot," he said self-deprecatingly. He watched as Aedan ripped out the heart of the hybrid whose death-by-neck-snap would have been only temporary.

Damon started to stand up and winced. His shoulder fucking hurt. A wave of dizziness hit him, and he slumped back to the floor. Apparently he should get that bullet out before trying to move. After a second to catch his breath, he twisted to look at his left shoulder, reaching awkwardly toward the bullet wound there. Damned wooden bullets.

Aedan closed the short distance between them. "Here, let me," he whispered, one hand going to the wound even as the other traced a comforting touch down Damon's back. "You should have let me go in first," Aedan added in a low voice.

Damon shook his head. "I was the one they wanted, so it had to be me," he answered in the same near-silent tone. They had gone over this in the planning phase. "Besides," he added. "You're not that much faster than me."

Aedan just rolled his eyes. "This is going to hurt," he warned Damon. Damon just nodded and closed his eyes as Aedan's mobile fingers dug into the wound. He knew it was only seconds before Aedan had extracted the bullet, but it was a long painful few seconds. Finally, the bullet was out, and Damon could feel his shoulder beginning to knit itself back together. He tried to catch his breath as he watched Aedan crush the guns one by one, leaving them twisted pieces of metal and plastic. Aedan glanced questioningly at the gun that Damon had used and then dropped by his side, and Damon shook his head in answer. No, he didn't want it. It could be turned against them too easily.

Aedan nodded and crushed it with his foot. "You okay?" he asked. He held out his hand to help Damon up.

Damon took the hand and levered himself to his feet. He held onto Aedan's hand for just a fraction longer than necessary, before reluctantly letting go. "Good to go," he answered, moving his healed shoulder in a circle to test it. Full mobility, even if it still stung.

They headed down the hallway that led out of the front room. The first two doors revealed empty rooms, but when Damon opened the third door that they came to, he saw Elena inside. She was gagged and bound to a chair, but she was clearly alive. He felt relief surge through him.

Damon entered the room cautiously, but any guards who had been watching Elena had been diverted to either the front or the back of the house to deal with their assault. She was alone. Damon crossed to her side as Aedan slipped into the room after him. "Let's get you out of here," he murmured as he untied the gag, struck by the emotion in Elena's huge dark eyes.

Elena wriggled against her bonds as Damon removed the gag. "I heard gunshots," she said frantically. Her eyes went to his shoulder, where blood had soaked into his shirt. "You're bleeding. Are you okay?"

"Just a flesh wound, and all healed already," Damon answered. He knelt and snapped the ropes that bound Elena's ankles to the chair. "Did they hurt you?" Elena had dirt smeared on her face and her normally perfectly straight hair was badly out of control, but he didn't smell any blood on her. That was a good sign.

Elena shook her head. "Not really," she admitted. "They didn't seem to understand that humans need to eat occasionally, but they haven't hurt me."

Damon felt a surge of relief as he moved around Elena to tear the ropes off her wrists. She really was going to be okay. They had gotten there in time.

As soon as the ropes dropped away from her, Elena threw herself at Damon. "I wasn't sure if you'd come," she said as she hugged him.

Damon stood there awkwardly as Elena pressed her slim body against his. "Of course I came," he said, a little hurt that she would doubt him after everything they had been through. He couldn't help but contrast the feel of her skinny arms and slight, curvy body to Aedan's powerful embrace. His eyes were drawn to where Aedan was standing by the door, but the other vampire was looking away, seemingly watching the hallway for any more hybrids. Damon wanted Aedan to look at him so that he could reassure his lover that Elena clutching him so tightly didn't mean anything beyond that she was grateful to be rescued. But Aedan still didn't look at them.

After what seemed to Damon like an inordinately long hug, Elena finally pulled away slightly, looking worried. "What about Stefan? I haven't seen him. . . ."

Damon met her eyes. "The B team is going after Stefan," Damon replied, trying to keep his own worry out of his voice.

"What 'B team'?" Elena asked suspiciously. She clearly hadn't been mollified by his attempt at reassurance.

"Blondie and Witchy and Katherine," Damon answered reluctantly.

Elena gave him a full-on glare at that. "You're trusting Katherine?" she said.

Damon felt a surge of annoyance. "I can't be in two places at once, Elena," he replied. It wasn't that he trusted Katherine, but he had to work with what he had. And besides, the person getting rescued – again – did not get to criticize his plan.

"We can look for him now," Elena declared with another glare. "Make sure they found him okay." She stepped away from Damon and staggered, almost falling. Damon caught her and scooped her up in his arms.

"Nope, we're getting you out of here," he said.

Elena hit his shoulder with her tiny fist. At least it wasn't the injured shoulder. That might have drawn a wince. "Put me down, Damon," she said. "I can walk."

Reluctantly, Damon set Elena back on her feet. "We'll move a lot faster if you let me carry you," he groused. He didn't see what the big deal was. She had been tied to a chair, she hadn't eaten for who knows how long – he was just trying to take care of her and make sure they got away safely.

"I'm walking, Damon," Elena said firmly. She added another glare for good measure. Once Damon had seen nothing but sparks in the way Elena blew hot and cold with him, flirting with him one minute and criticizing him the next. Even now, he couldn't help but notice the way her chest rose and fell as her breathing quickened. But he reminded himself that he had plenty of sparks with Aedan, along with a certainty that Aedan actually liked him and enjoyed his company.

Speaking of Aedan, the other vampire turned back into the room then. His gray eyes jumped between Damon and Elena as they stood close together, eyes flashing at each other. "We should go," he said. "There's a commotion at the back of the house, probably the others."

Damon glanced over at Aedan, reading the tension in his lover's stance. "Right, we're leaving now," he said. He gestured for Elena to head for the door.

"What about Stefan?" Elena repeated.

Aedan's eyes met Damon's at that, and Damon almost smiled at the frustration there. It was nice to know that someone else found Elena's particular brand of stubbornness infuriating. "We have a plan, Elena," Damon explained. "You're gonna have to trust us." He was choosing to believe that the sounds Aedan had heard from the back of the house were the others escaping with Stefan. That was the only possibility that didn't paralyze Damon or tempt him to abandon his own plan and go after his brother himself. The only reason he didn't was that he knew that Aedan would refuse to leave him, which meant they really would have to bring Elena along.

Elena pouted at him. "Fine," she said grudgingly. Damon decided that pout wasn't as cute as he used to think. Did she really think it was easy for him to leave Stefan's fate in anyone else's hands? He was doing this for her, because he hadn't trusted Katherine to care at all about Elena's safety.

He saw Aedan roll his eyes. "Can we get out of here?" he repeated.

Elena finally moved toward the door as Aedan cautiously led the way out into the hallway and back the way he and Damon had come. Damon brought up the rear. He thought the way should be clear to the front door, but there was always the chance of more hybrids coming up behind them. They headed slowly down the hallway. Elena didn't look entirely steady on her feet, and Damon wished again that she had let him carry her. They could be long gone by now. Aedan glanced back, looking annoyed at their slow pace, and Damon imagined that the other vampire was thinking the same thing.

They were almost at the end of the hallway when Damon heard the hybrids approaching behind them, heard the faint click of the trigger of a gun. He spun around to see two hybrids, guns raised. He knew he could have avoided the bullets, but it didn't matter because Elena was in front of him. Damon remembered how, delirious from his first werewolf bite, he had dodged a bullet and it had killed Jeremy Gilbert instead. He wouldn't let that happen again. He shouted, "Get down, Elena," even as he felt a burst of sharp pain as a wooden bullet drove into his chest, followed almost immediately by a second. He realized too late that he might have miscalculated things a little, that he probably shouldn't have taken the shots right in the chest.

All in a single instant, Damon felt himself falling, driven backwards into Elena by the bullets and the sudden weakness of his body, and he thought randomly that she would be upset with him for knocking her down. He saw Aedan moving, and he tried to say "sorry," knowing that Aedan was the one person who would not approve of him taking a bullet for Elena. But he couldn't seem to speak. The pain burning through his body had short-circuited his muscles, and Damon struggled to breathe as blackness crept around the edges of his vision.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** _Sorry to leave you hanging for so long with that cliffhanger, but the characters have minds of their own in this story. They do make the chapters better when they force me to take my time, though, so it's a trade-off. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed or favorited this story (since I couldn't PM some of you), and I very much appreciate all feedback!_**  
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**Chapter 14**

Aedan heard the thud of bullets hitting flesh even as he spun around. One glance showed him two hybrids armed with guns and both Elena and Damon on the ground. His mind registered that Elena was moving and Damon wasn't even as he heard the girl's voice. "Damon, what the hell? Get off of me!" And then the tone changed. "Damon?"

Aedan forced aside his fear at the realization that Damon had been shot and the certainty that, if his lover wasn't getting up, the bullets had to be wood. If he let himself think for even a second about what Damon's stillness could mean, he would be dead himself because one of the hybrids was firing again. He could only hope that Elena had the sense to stay down. Aedan dodged as he saw the hybrid's trigger finger move, his reflexes even faster than those of Klaus' creation. But the hybrid and the bullet were lightning fast, too, and Aedan felt the burn of the wooden bullet grazing his shoulder even as he threw himself out of the way. He used the momentum of his dodge to counterattack, flashing forward and hitting the closest of the two hybrids with so much force that its head flew off its body.

The other hybrid, a dark-haired young man, panicked at that, or maybe he thought he had achieved his goal by shooting Damon. He turned to try to run back down the hallway, but Aedan was on him before he could get more than a single step. The unintentional beheading had worked so well on the first hybrid that Aedan tore the head off this one on purpose. He reveled in the spurt of blood that came from its neck and the way the body crashed to the ground as he tossed the head aside. Vampire instinct said that Damon was _his_ and anyone who hurt Damon deserved the most brutal death that Aedan could dish out.

But the joy of the kill faded as quickly as it had come as Aedan exerted the iron control that had carried him through five hundred years of life as a vampire. He turned around to see Damon lying unmoving, blood soaking into his shirt. The familiar smell of Damon's blood was stronger for Aedan than even that of the hybrid blood that had splashed everywhere in the hallway, and he knew that today that scent didn't mean sex and pleasure and connection – it meant that Damon lay near death.

Aedan knelt by Damon's still body, his own heart pounding out of his chest – and not from the fight with the two hybrids. Elena was there as well, shaking Damon's shoulder. "Damon, look at me. Stay with me," the girl pleaded.

Aedan shoved her out of the way, probably harder than he should have. Damon's eyes were open, but the normally clear blue eyes were dull and unfocused with pain. Aedan wasn't at all sure that Damon was seeing anything around him. Worried, he let his eyes roam from Damon's face down his lover's body to where two large stains of blood were spreading across Damon's shirt. It was the one on the left that scared Aedan because, from the location of the hole, that bullet was very, very close to Damon's heart. He knew it hadn't hit the heart because wood piercing a vampire's heart would lead to almost instant dessication, and Damon wasn't gray and dead yet. But if that bullet migrated even a little, it could easily be the end.

Aedan forced himself to take a deep breath, trying not to panic. He couldn't take the bullet out here where more hybrids might show up at any moment. That meant that he was going to have to move Damon. He locked his gray eyes onto Damon's unseeing blue ones, pouring all his willpower into his gaze as he tried to hold Damon to his body. "Damon," he ordered. Aedan wasn't an Original and he couldn't compel Damon, but he saw the blue eyes gradually focusing, responding to Aedan's demand, his will and the power of his mind, and the bond between them. "Damon," he repeated more softly when he was sure that his lover was seeing him.

"Sorry," Damon murmured inconsequentially. His voice was raspy and weak. He blinked. "Couldn't let her get shot."

Aedan shook his head, not caring about that. His fingers flew over the buttons of Damon's shirt, undoing them to get a look at the wounds. "You're going to be fine," Aedan told him. "But there's a bullet close to your heart. I'm going to get you out of here, but you can't move much, okay?"

Damon nodded slightly, and Aedan didn't waste any more time. He gathered Damon very gently into his arms and got to his feet.

Elena was staring at them both with wide, frightened eyes. "He can't die," she said. "I need him."

Aedan shook his head, putting out of his mind the chemistry that he had seen between Damon and Elena back in the room and the stricken look in Elena's eyes at the thought of losing Damon. He didn't like seeing Damon spark like that with anyone but him, although he knew that flirting was practically a reflex action for Damon. He tried to sound reassuring. "He's a vampire. A couple of bullets won't kill him. But we need to get out of here now, before any more hybrids show up." Elena was going to have to pull herself together. He didn't have time to deal with a frightened girl. "Get up," he ordered her. "You said you can walk. Now you're going to have to."

Elena nodded slowly and got to her feet. She still looked dazed, but she started walking down the hallway, and Aedan followed with Damon limp and all but unconscious in his arms. He didn't dare move quickly. For one thing, he would have to leave Elena behind, and he knew Damon wouldn't approve of that. But more importantly, moving at vampire speed would only increase the likelihood of the bullet next to Damon's heart being jarred into motion. So it seemed to take forever just to reach the front of the house.

Elena turned to stare at him at the sight of the dead hybrids in the front room, and Aedan just gave her a hard look. "Keep moving," he told her. He saw her eyes wander to the two bodies on the front porch, too, but she kept putting one foot in front of the other. Aedan took the lead as they headed away from the house. He kept his senses on high alert, but they finally caught a break and no additional hybrids pursued them as they moved through the forest. It was lucky, Aedan thought, because Elena made a horrible racket for such a slender girl. No woodscraft at all, apparently, which probably shouldn't be a surprise in the twenty-first century.

Even at their slow pace, they reached the cars without any trouble. Aedan could hear the others milling around the back of one of the cars, but he ignored them. He set Damon gently down on the ground, leaning him against a tree. "Don't move," he reminded his lover, placing a gentle hand on his arm. Damon had regained consciousness, but that was a mixed blessing given the pain that the younger vampire was clearly feeling. Aedan hated seeing that dazed look in Damon's eyes and the way his features were pinched and tight with pain.

Damon was shifting restlessly, ignoring Aedan's hand and apparently trying to look around. "Stefan?" he asked weakly.

Katherine and Caroline appeared from around the other side of the car then. Both of them were more than a little splattered with blood, as Aedan knew that he was himself, but both appeared to be uninjured. Aedan thought he saw a trace of concern as Katherine narrowed her eyes at the sight of Damon slumped against the tree, his shirt hanging open and his torso covered in blood. "We got him out, Damon," she answered. "He's in the back of the car. They vervained and tortured him, but a little blood and he'll be as good as new."

"What happened?" Caroline asked, staring at Damon with confusion.

"He was shot. Wooden bullets," Aedan answered shortly.

"We ran into those, too," Caroline said with a nod of understanding. "None of us got shot, though. Bonnie's new cloaking spell totally worked, by the way."

It was Elena who tried to explain. "Damon was protecting me," she said.

Aedan ignored them both, glancing at the crew of humans and supernaturals around him. He was more concerned with getting the bullets out of Damon than with how he had gotten shot. Elena was hovering uselessly just a few feet away, and Alaric and Bonnie had just come around the side of the car. Aedan debated if Damon was weak enough that Alaric could hold him still while Aedan extracted the bullets, but he reluctantly rejected that idea. He couldn't take any chances with a bullet so close to Damon's heart. He turned to Katherine instead. "Will you hold him while I get the bullets out?" he asked. "One is lodged close to his heart."

Katherine nodded, looking unusually serious. "My fingers are smaller," she said. "You hold him still, and I'll extract the bullets."

Aedan hesitated, still not sure if he trusted Katherine with choosing a wine let alone with Damon's life.

The other vampire's narrowed eyes revealed that she was well aware of his doubts. "I wouldn't have left him behind," she said.

"Don't tell me you've grown a heart at your age," Aedan replied dryly. "It would shake my faith in one of the basic constants of the universe." Damon started to laugh at that, showing more awareness of his surroundings than Aedan had expected, but the laugh quickly turned into a groan. "Alright," Aedan conceded, hating that sound of pain coming from Damon. "I'll hold him." He very gently moved Damon and pulled the younger vampire against his chest, locking his arms around him. "Do it," he told Katherine.

Katherine nodded and silently knelt in front of them. Aedan felt Damon tense and instinctively try to wriggle away as she began to dig her fingers into the first bullet hole, and he whispered softly in Damon's ear. "Shhh. Still, remember?" Damon relaxed slightly at the words, but Aedan was afraid that Damon was slipping further from conscious awareness at the increased pain. He was suddenly glad that he was the one holding Damon, knowing that he could keep Damon immobilized even if the younger vampire started to truly struggle. Katherine seemed to be taking her own sweet time about things, though, and Aedan snapped at her. "Well? You don't have a future in surgery, do you?"

Katherine glared at him. "Shut up. It's in deep, but I've almost got it."

Damon gave a stifled cry of pain then and tried to flinch away.

"Katerina," Aedan began menacingly. She was supposed to be extracting the bullet, not removing Damon's heart, and from that sound Damon had just made and the way he had flinched, her finger had just dug into his heart.

Katherine ignored both him and Damon, and a second later, she pulled the bullet from Damon's body. She held it up to Aedan triumphantly, and Aedan felt a wave of relief wash through him. It was such a small piece of wood to have nearly taken Damon away from him.

Damon leaned his head back against Aedan's shoulder and went limp. His breathing was heavy and he trembled slightly as he tried to catch his breath. The bullet might be out, but the wound wasn't healing yet, and Aedan knew that it wouldn't heal until the other wooden bullet was out of Damon's body. If anything, Damon was bleeding more heavily now from where Katherine had been forced to widen the hole in his chest to get to the bullet.

"One more," Katherine said, and Damon nodded weakly.

"Just get it out," he murmured. "It hurts."

Caroline's voice interrupted them. "Hybrids, coming through the woods."

"Shit," Aedan cursed. He could hear them now, too, as he let his attention shift from monitoring the beating of Damon's heart. "Four, I think," he said as his ears automatically parsed the faint sounds to evaluate the threat. This was the worst possible time for another attack, with himself and Katherine both occupied. Damon was in no condition to move yet, let alone fight, and he couldn't bear the thought of leaving Damon in this kind of pain any longer than absolutely necessary.

"On it," Alaric said. "Bonnie, how many can you take down?"

Aedan felt a surge of relief. He liked Alaric, for a human, and the man seemed to be a competent hunter. It shouldn't take long to get the remaining bullet out of Damon's body, and four wasn't that many hybrids.

"Two, I think," was Bonnie's reply.

Alaric nodded and produced a crossbow from somewhere. He looked briefly at Damon, his eyes filled with concern, and Aedan could see the evidence of the friendship between the two that Damon had told him about. "We'll take care of it," he told Aedan, gesturing to Bonnie and Caroline. "Get Damon patched up." And then he and the two girls headed off into the woods.

Katherine turned back without a word and dug her fingers into the second bullet hole in Damon's torso. Aedan could feel Damon tense in his arms as Katherine burrowed her slim fingers deeper into his body. This time she didn't have to be careful, and it took only a few seconds before those fingers were holding up a bloody little piece of wood. Katherine tilted her head, and Aedan couldn't read her dark eyes as she studied Damon. "Don't say I never did anything for you, Damon," she said. She casually tossed the bullet aside and wiped her hands on one of the few clean parts of Damon's dark button-down shirt. She got to her feet and stepped back with her usual smirk on her face. "I'll just go make sure that the kids don't mess up killing the last of those pesky hybrids."

They were left alone for a moment then, except for Elena's silent presence, and Damon slumped in Aedan's arms. He had opened his eyes at Katherine's words, and Aedan felt a surge of relief that his blue eyes were clear and flashing with his usual spirit. Aedan thought he could see the wounds on Damon's torso beginning to heal, but the tissue was knitting together very slowly. The wounds were deep, and Katherine had been forced to widen them further to dig the bullets out, and Damon had lost a great deal of blood. Any vampire would take a while to heal under these circumstances. Aedan placed a light kiss against Damon's ear, unable to hide his relief that his lover was going to be okay.

Damon stayed relaxed for another brief moment before squirming in Aedan's arms. "I'm fine now," Damon said, sounding impatient to be on his feet. His eyes jumped to where Elena was crouched a few feet away and then scanned the area. "I need to see Stefan," he demanded.

Aedan suppressed a sigh. "You can't sit still for even a second, can you?" He helped Damon to his feet, holding him up when he nearly fell and ignoring the hand that Elena placed unnecessarily on Damon's arm from his other side. The sounds of battle in the forest had stopped now, and Aedan could hear Caroline talking excitedly – and loudly – about girl power, followed immediately by an apology to Alaric. They had presumably won then, and Aedan really hoped those were the last of Klaus' hybrids, bound by their sire bond to try to avenge their master's death.

He led Damon over to the open back of his SUV where the others had been gathered when they had arrived. Sure enough, Stefan lay inside, bloody and unconscious. Aedan wondered whose idea it had been to get all that blood on the upholstery in _his_ car, but he couldn't be too upset because he could feel the shudder of relief that went through Damon at the sight of his brother. He watched as Damon reached out a shaky hand to touch Stefan's arm, and Aedan hid a smile at the realization that exhaustion and blood loss were making Damon uncharacteristically emotional. He wanted to kiss him then and there, but the moment was interrupted by another voice.

"Oh, God. Stefan," Elena gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth in horror. She didn't seem to feel the same relief as Damon at the sight of the younger Salvatore brother, even though it was clear to Aedan that Stefan would be fine as soon as they got him some blood.

Damon's voice was stronger as he pulled away from Aedan slightly and turned to Elena. "He'll be fine, Elena," he said reassuringly. "Vampires are hard to kill, especially ones as stubborn and annoying as Stefan."

Elena offered a small smile at that. "I guess you would know something about that," she said, brown eyes bright with unshed tears.

"You're damn right I would." Damon's velvety voice was deeper than usual with his own emotion, his eyes locked on Elena's face, and Aedan suddenly felt like the intruder in the moment between them. He saw Damon glance back at Stefan and then frown like something had just occurred to him, but before he could speak again, the sound of people tramping through the forest drew all of their attention away from the back of the car.

"You should have seen us kick some hybrid ass, Elena," Caroline practically squealed as the small space around the car quickly filled with vampires and humans. Aedan reluctantly took a small step back away from Damon, very much aware that he was the outsider among the group. He was pretty sure that Katherine was the only one who noticed.

•••••

Damon leaned his head back against the seat of the car and closed his eyes. His skin had finished knitting itself back together, but his healing had been way too slow without blood and it still hurt like hell. He wasn't even convinced everything inside of him had healed completely yet. Elena had taken the seat next to him – he wasn't sure why she had picked Aedan's car to ride back in, except that Stefan's unconscious body was in the back – and she grabbed his hand in what he assumed was supposed to be comfort. Too bad she smelled like a tasty snack, and Damon could hear her blood pounding teasingly in her veins. Hell, he could feel her pulse in her thumb where she touched him. He would never hurt her, of course – unlike his brother, he had control – but his body was screaming for fresh blood to replenish its strength. He couldn't remember the last time he had been this _hungry_. He certainly wasn't getting any comfort from her proximity. He opened his eyes. He wanted Aedan's shoulder to lean on, in fact, but Aedan was busy driving.

As if his lover could sense his thoughts, Damon saw Aedan glance in the rearview mirror. Gray eyes met blue, but Damon couldn't read the look in the other vampire's eyes. He frowned as Aedan turned his attention back to the road. Something was wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Aedan was too good at hiding his thoughts, even from Damon. _I'm too tired and hungry to figure this out_, Damon thought. _And Elena still smells like a fucking happy meal._ He closed his own eyes again and concentrated on keeping his hunger under control.

Damon heard Stefan groan from the back of the car, and he gladly let that sound distract him from the sound of Elena's blood pumping through her body. He didn't intend to let anyone know just how relieved he was that his brother would be okay. Although if Damon thought his own healing was slow right now, Stefan was taking _forever_ to wake up. He suspected that Stefan had gone back on bunny blood, and that worried him. Elena had probably pushed his brother in that direction while Damon was away with Aedan. He knew she thought that was the humane way for a vampire to live, but she didn't realize what she was doing. She was only feeding Stefan's tendency to go from one extreme to another, and Damon was convinced that as long as Stefan denied what he was, he would fall off the wagon periodically. Stefan might be a dick on human blood, but he needed to learn how to control himself. Damon had explained this to both Stefan and Elena more than once, not that either of them ever listened to him. Not to mention that after today it seemed just as important as ever that Stefan be as strong as possible to protect Elena.

One problem with this caring about people thing, Damon decided, was that you had to help them out when they were in danger. Damon hoped that they had finally seen the last of the hybrids, but Mystic Falls certainly seemed to be Grand Central Station for supernatural threats. Damon thought maybe he could teach his little brother to control himself, but he was afraid that it was going to take time. And he wasn't sure how Aedan felt about staying in Mystic Falls for a while. He thought Aedan understood something of how he felt about Stefan – Damon had in fact accidentally revealed far more of his emotions when Stefan had been captured than he had ever intended to – so maybe he would be willing to stick around. Because the last thing Damon wanted was to give up Aedan. _This caring thing is fucking complicated_, Damon thought in frustration.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: ** _Once again I have to apologize for how long this took. I got stuck on one section in particular (I won't say which one), but here it is. As always, thanks for reading and all feedback is much appreciated!_

**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters from the show, more's the pity. I do own Aedan and the plot of this story._

**Chapter 15**

Damon drank the blood bags that his body needed to finally finish healing. He got Stefan situated in his messy, cluttered bedroom, with Caroline assigned to watch him and offer him blood when he woke up. Vampire Barbie had strict instructions to report back to Damon on whether Stefan went for animal blood or human and how much he drank; his brother was unpredictable when pushed, especially lately when his emotions – and diet – had been even more schizophrenic than usual, and Damon didn't need Stefan going off the rails again right now. And he had left Elena in the kitchen with a glass of juice, Ric and Bonnie for company, and pizza on the way. Damon knew that she wanted to follow him around and "help" him and ask him questions about Stefan, but she needed to replenish her strength after being held captive without food or water and he was too tired and sore to deal with her anyway. Katherine was . . . well, Damon didn't know where Katherine was, and he didn't much care, although he supposed he might owe her a thank you for helping him out. Good thing she wouldn't actually be expecting him to say the words. He was, however, looking for Aedan, who had disappeared at some point in the process of getting everyone settled. Damon couldn't blame him – he had had about all he could take of the whole Mystic Falls crowd, too. He was very much missing the peace and quiet of Aedan's house right about now, and he suspected that Aedan was probably feeling the same way.

Damon found the older vampire sitting on one of the couches downstairs, staring into the fire. It was mid-afternoon, but Damon liked to keep fires burning in the house as much as possible. If anyone asked, he claimed it was because the old house got drafty, but really he just had a thing for fire. As long as it wasn't a witch or the sun setting _him_ on fire, that is. He liked the way fire was never more than semi-controlled, beautiful but always with the potential for destruction. But just then, Damon wasn't looking at the fire. He watched Aedan instead, noticing that there was more tension in his lover's shoulders than there should be. They had won and everyone was alive, or as alive as they had been the day before, so shouldn't they be celebrating?

After a moment's pause, Damon crossed the room and poured two drinks. Then he headed for the couch, sinking down next to Aedan. Part of him wanted to just curl up in Aedan's arms, or settle his head in the older vampire's lap and sink into sleep, but he was determined to play it cooler than that. He kept a few inches of space between them and held out a drink to his lover with a wry smile. "Long day," Damon said. "Long couple of days." He was exhausted, physically and mentally, and he just needed to relax for a few minutes. Or hours. He needed that feeling of belonging, of acceptance, that he found only with Aedan.

Aedan silently took the drink, and Damon felt the familiar spark between them as their fingers touched lightly. Damon thought he saw some of the tension leave Aedan's body as gray eyes met blue. "How are you feeling?" Aedan asked quietly. "Are you okay?"

Damon chose to interpret that question as literally as possible. "All healed," he said. "But sore." After a moment he added, "I hate wood. Except in furniture." Aedan chuckled at that and Damon saw a spark of his usual humor in his eyes, but the older vampire didn't say anything more. After a moment, Damon asked, "What about you? You were hurt, too." He reached up to touch Aedan's shoulder where he had seen blood. It was gone now – Aedan had apparently showered and changed while Damon had been dealing with Stefan and Elena.

"It was just a scratch," Aedan replied. "But you're going to need to replenish your blood supply. Too many vampires in the house."

"Yeah, we can go tomorrow or the next day." Feeling bolder, Damon ran his hand down Aedan's chest and smiled as he suddenly recognized the black t-shirt that the other vampire had put on after his shower. "Where'd you get this shirt?" he asked teasingly.

Aedan grinned, although there was still something guarded about his expression. "I found it in your drawer, but I think it used to be mine before you stole it."

"Borrowed it," Damon corrected. It was the shirt that he had worn home from Aedan's house after the first time they'd met – and the first time they'd had sex.

"So you were going to return it?"

"Well . . ." Damon hated to lie. He hadn't really thought about why he had tucked that shirt away in a corner of a drawer even though it was too big for him, and then he had forgotten all about it in the whirlwind of the past couple of weeks.

"I thought so," Aedan said with a teasing smugness. "Besides – it was the only one there that would fit me."

"My shirts would look good on you," Damon said, picturing one of his t-shirts stretched over Aedan's muscular chest and shoulders. "They'd just be a littletight." He tilted his head appraisingly. "Or you could just go shirtless. That's a good look, too." He met Aedan's eyes for a long moment, seeing both laughter and emotion there before Damon impulsively shifted closer and claimed a kiss. As always, Damon felt a fire flare up between them, and he suddenly didn't care that he was exhausted and sore from being shot by hybrids, that he hadn't slept in almost thirty-six hours. "Come upstairs with me," he murmured when they finally broke apart. "That shirt needs to come off."

Aedan smiled. "You're the one who's still wearing bloody clothes with bullet holes," he teased.

Damon let a look of mock indignation come over his face. "Bullet holes are the latest in Mystic Falls fashion. They make every outfit a designer original."

Aedan laughed. "And you say you're not an optimist."

The doorbell rang then, and Damon heard Elena's voice from the kitchen, louder than before as it intruded on his quiet moment with Aedan. "Is that the pizza?" she asked. "Where's Damon?"

Damon kept his eyes on Aedan. He didn't want to be interrupted. "Upstairs," he repeated, letting a little bit of demand creep into his voice.

Aedan's grin widened. "You don't want pizza? I smell . . . pepperoni."

Damon paused, surprised and momentarily distracted. "You eat pizza?" He had never seen Aedan eat any human food.

Aedan shrugged. "Sometimes. As far as human food goes, pizza isn't bad."

Damon grinned. "I'll make you some really good pizza sometime. _Way_ better than what's at the door." Then he added, "If you come upstairs with me now." He could hear Alaric and Elena at the door, and he heard Ric grumble as he paid for the pizza, followed by Elena asking about Damon's whereabouts yet again. Damon thought he was lucky that Ric was perceptive enough to deduce from his rapid exit from the kitchen earlier that he wanted some time away from the Scooby Gang.

"You're persistent today," Aedan said, and Damon wondered where the other vampire's sudden reluctance had come from.

He reacted with his characteristic bluntness, pale blue eyes locked intently on Aedan's face. "I'm always persistent. But you usually don't make me work this hard."

Aedan's smile turned rueful. He hesitated for a moment before he replied, "I thought you might want to spend some time with your friends, with Elena."

"Nope, seen enough of them today. Almost died saving Elena, in fact." Damon gave a little shudder. "I want to spend time with you."

"Then we should probably head upstairs before they offer us pizza."

Damon grinned. "_That's_ what I've been saying." He grabbed Aedan's hand and tugged the other vampire to his feet.

By the time the door to Damon's bedroom closed behind them, Aedan seemed to have forgotten his earlier hesitation. They discarded their clothes onto the tiles of Damon's luxurious bathroom, their bodies locked together and mouths dueling for control, and then Damon was letting the warm water of the shower run over him, washing away the blood and sweat and dirt of the day. He closed his eyes as Aedan's hands roamed his body, rubbing away the dried blood before kneading the tense muscles of his shoulders. Damon sighed into Aedan's touch as the other vampire's hands began to trace down his body, dislodging the last of the blood from the day's battles. Aedan moved in front of Damon then, and his hands lingered for a long moment at the smooth skin of Damon's chest where the two bullets had penetrated, his fingers playing over the sensitive skin.

The wounds were fully healed now, but if Damon let himself think about it, he could still feel the wood burning into his flesh with all the force of a gun fired at close range, the surge of pain accompanied by disorientation as he struggled to hold onto consciousness, then later the fear as he realized that one bullet was way too close to his heart. He opened his eyes as Aedan's hands finally moved from that spot and then Aedan was kissing him, his mouth both tender and aggressive at the same time. When they finally pulled apart for a moment, Damon saw that Aedan's gray eyes were overflowing with emotion. He could almost see Aedan force that emotion back, burying it, and Damon hunted for words to tell the other vampire that he didn't need to do that. But before he could find any words, Aedan's mouth was back on his, and the older vampire was pushing him against the wall of the shower. This kiss was all aggression, rough and demanding, and Damon kissed him back just as roughly as he caught the mood that wild passion was an excellent way to celebrate the fact that he was still among the walking undead.

Aedan's touch always made Damon's knees go weak, and that was even more the case now with his body still feeling the effects of blood loss and healing. Aedan pressed him back into the wall, his body hard against Damon's, and Damon moaned at the feeling of their bodies fitting together, their cocks rubbing against each other. The other vampire looked so very sexy with his sandy hair soaking wet, his body slick from the shower, and his eyes dark with desire.

Aedan lifted Damon effortlessly and nuzzled at his neck at a sensitive spot where he often bit Damon. Damon made another strangled sound, and he sensed it as Aedan's face changed, fangs coming out. But to Damon's surprise, Aedan stopped before slicing into his neck. Aedan pulled back, his features shifting back to human as he shook his head slightly. His hands had never stopped their exploration of Damon's body, however, and Damon searched for coherent words around the distraction of Aedan's touch. He wanted to know what had just happened, why Aedan hadn't bitten him when he clearly wanted to, but before he could speak, Aedan had shifted him slightly and entered him.

Damon gasped as the sharp wave of pleasure drove all thoughts out of his head, and he gave himself over to the feeling of Aedan driving into him, setting a hard, fast rhythm. Their bodies moved together perfectly, and Aedan groaned out Damon's name, his voice deeper and somehow far less controlled than Damon was used to. "Fuck, Damon," he repeated roughly.

Damon felt his own desire spike even further at the look on Aedan's face and the feeling that the other vampire was, for once, losing control. They came together a moment later, Aedan first with Damon pulled along just a moment behind. Once again, Aedan didn't bite Damon but instead captured his lips in a breathless kiss as both their bodies relaxed. A moment later, Damon reluctantly regained his own feet as Aedan finally pulled out of him. He was grateful for the support of the wall behind him as his legs shook just a little from the sheer force of his orgasm.

Aedan looked just as debauched as Damon felt. He smiled at the way Aedan was trembling slightly, his eyes still dark and his lips swollen from their kisses, and he pulled the other vampire in for another kiss. He nibbled at Aedan's lip and was rewarded by a low moan. Unfortunately, Damon noticed then that the water in the shower was rapidly cooling. Damon didn't skimp on luxuries like installing the biggest and best water heater available, but apparently they had spent too long in the shower even for his house.

"I guess we're done," Aedan murmured, apparently reacting to the same shock of cold water. "You should probably get some rest anyway." He sounded a bit reluctant to Damon's ears.

Damon wanted to protest, but the exhaustion of the day was starting to hit him again. "Just think of it as a short pause," he replied as he turned off the water. Minutes later, Damon stretched out beside Aedan on the bed, now dry but still naked, of course. He purred contentedly as he rested his head on Aedan's chest and let his body sink down against the other vampire's. He felt relaxed around Aedan in a way he didn't around anyone else. Even with Stefan there was always that element of judgment – hell, Stefan was one of the most judgmental people Damon had ever met. He should have been a witch. Damon sighed as Aedan began to lightly run his fingers through his black hair, still damp from the shower. "I think Stefan might have tried to go back on bunny blood," Damon confessed after a few more minutes of peaceful silence.

"Why?" Aedan sounded like he might be wondering why they were talking about Stefan as they lay in bed together, and Damon couldn't really blame him.

He tried to explain. "Guilt, I guess. I have no idea how he can stomach the stuff. But I'm going to have to stay here for a while, make sure he's okay." That was the point – that Damon would have to stay in Mystic Falls to look out for his brother.

Aedan nodded. "I figured you would."

Something in his voice triggered a wave of anxiety in Damon. He sat up abruptly. "You're not leaving, are you?" he asked.

Aedan met his eyes, but Damon could see him bury some emotion. "I'll stay if you want me to," the older vampire replied.

Damon forced himself to relax. He was seeing a pattern today of Aedan concealing his emotions, and he didn't like it but he wasn't sure what to say to get the older vampire to tell him what he was thinking. He also didn't think he could handle anything else today, and it couldn't be too serious since Aedan was right there in bed with him. Finally he just answered, "Good, because I want you to." He studied Aedan for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed him. It was a gentle but insistent kiss.

Aedan looked slightly puzzled when Damon pulled away. "What was that for?"

Damon smiled. "Helping me today. Everyone is alive – or at least, alive-ish – and they wouldn't be if it weren't for you. I might not be." Damon dropped his head back to Aedan's chest. He could feel the exhaustion from earlier dragging at his body and mind, and he pushed away his vague worries, letting himself feel contented and relaxed, safe and comfortable, with Aedan in his bed. Maybe even loved, for once in his long life. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.

•••••

Aedan lay awake after Damon had slipped into sleep. He had come an inch, maybe less, from losing Damon today, an inch from a wooden bullet piercing his lover's heart. Aedan stroked his hand lightly over Damon's skin. An inch from being alone again. He knew that Damon had taken those bullets to protect Elena, and of course, they had taken the risk of going after the hybrids to rescue her and Stefan. Damon wouldn't be the man that he had fallen in love with if he wasn't willing to take crazy risks to protect the people that he cared about, but Aedan still wished that he could protect Damon somehow, even as he knew that trying to protect Damon would only alienate him. And he also knew that wooden bullets were not the only way he could lose Damon.

As a vampire, Aedan had stood outside of time for five hundred years, watching the world change as he remained the same. That wasn't enough for him in that moment. He wanted to stop time – or simply lock the bedroom door to keep the rest of the world out and prolong this moment of Damon's body intertwined with his own, fitting together like they were made for each other. Of all the mixed messages that Damon was sending right now, this was the one that Aedan preferred to believe – that nothing had changed between them and that Damon still wanted to be with him the way he had for the past few days, before that phone call to return to Mystic Falls. Before he saw Elena again. For these minutes, Damon was his, just like Aedan wanted more than anything, but he was afraid that was about to change.

The rescue that morning had convinced Aedan that Elena would make a play to regain Damon's affections, and Aedan was uncharacteristically uncertain what to do about it. In fact, he had been slightly surprised when Damon had sought him out. And he had hesitated over Damon's suggestion that they head upstairs, aware then that Damon didn't realize yet that the girl that he had loved might be ready to return his feelings. But of course, Aedan had given in to what he and Damon both wanted in that moment, and as he held Damon pressed against him as the younger vampire slept, he just hoped that it wasn't for the last time.

He and Damon had gotten very close, very quickly over the past few days, but it had only been a few days since Damon had refused to admit to Elena that there were any real feelings between the two of them. Given a little more time, Aedan thought he would be sure of Damon, that the attraction between them would be too strong to break, but he wasn't sure yet. He reminded himself that he was the one in Damon's bed, that Damon slept, relaxed and trusting, in _his_ arms.

Aedan couldn't imagine that Elena was right for Damon. If he forced aside the instincts of a jealous vampire, he didn't dislike her, not really. She was certainly beautiful, and she was brave, if perhaps not overly bright. But he knew Damon, and Damon liked it rough and wild and more than a little kinky. He couldn't imagine that Elena could give him that. That any human could. Out of the bedroom, Damon was brilliantly smart, wickedly funny, and a bit crazy. Perfect, as far as Aedan was concerned. But surely Damon would be bored with Elena within a couple of weeks? What would he do – hang around Mystic Falls High School and then follow her to college? And, perhaps more importantly, Aedan was still convinced that Elena didn't love Damon, at least not the way he deserved, even if she thought she did. He deserved someone who would put him first, and Aedan couldn't see the human girl doing that from what he had seen of her interactions with Damon. He had, in fact, seen her hurt Damon more than once just in the short time he had known them both.

But even Damon had admitted that he had fallen head over heels in love with Katherine as a human – no surprise there, Katherine had probably broken more hearts than Aedan could count – and that meant that the face that Elena wore had been the face of Damon's dreams for almost a century and a half. That would be a powerful seduction, and it was one that Aedan feared he couldn't compete with. It was clear after today that Damon hadn't broken the pull that Elena had over him, and if Aedan was right and Elena had finally decided that she wanted Damon, too, Aedan suspected he knew who Damon would choose. And he was afraid it wasn't him.

Aedan also knew that there was one other thing that Elena could offer Damon that he himself couldn't. Humanity. Something Aedan had lost so long ago that it was barely more than a distant memory. He tried to be as moral as he could, as moral as his vampire instincts would let him, but he knew that he was a vampire through and through. If Damon wanted to stay in touch with his humanity, then he might very well choose Elena – and Aedan had to admit that he probably should. Damon had awoken more feelings in him than Aedan had felt in centuries, but his humanity was long gone. Damon's ties to the human world were far stronger than Aedan's, and choosing Aedan would mean moving away from that, fully embracing the vampire, the monster, in himself. Damon made a gloriously beautiful monster, but maybe Elena could give him more than that.

Aedan also knew that as much he wanted to fight for Damon, as much as backing off went against his instincts, he had to give Damon space. Trying to constrain or control Damon would only drive him away, Aedan was certain. So far each time one of them had stepped away, they had been drawn back together. Aedan had done his best to make it clear how he felt, and if need be, he would take another step back and hope that Damon returned to him.

Aedan was still lying awake, his mind going in circles that his hand traced out in light caresses on Damon's back, and Damon was still lost in the deep sleep of total exhaustion, when there was a soft knock on the bedroom door.

Aedan sighed and gently shifted Damon off him. He felt a twinge in his heart as Damon made a little sound of protest at losing his vampire pillow, and Aedan paused for a second just to look at Damon as he slept. So beautiful. Then he flashed out of bed and pulled on his jeans. He opened the door before their visitor could knock for a third time.

"Oh," Elena stammered, eyes wide and hand frozen in the air ready to knock again. She looked more than a little flustered at the sight of a half-naked near-stranger opening the door to Damon's bedroom. "I, uh, was looking for Damon."

Aedan couldn't resist a slightly sinister smile as he loomed over her. It was fun to torment humans sometimes. "He's sleeping." He kept his voice low, still trying to avoid waking Damon.

Elena frowned at that. "Sleeping? It's not even six o'clock."

Aedan just looked down at her. "He's a little tired from getting shot. Plus we were up all night planning your rescue," he finally explained. He was sorely tempted to mention the rest of their activities, but decorum or respect for his own privacy and Damon's held him back.

Elena kept pushing. "Look, I really need to talk to him."

Behind him, Aedan heard a groan, and he knew that the commotion had woken Damon up. "I'm awake now," Damon grumbled. "You can come in, Elena, but you'll have to give me a second if you want me to be decent. Of course, I don't mind if you want to walk right in. . . ."

Aedan watched with amusement as Elena covered her eyes with one hand. God, she was young. All of these people were. It had been a very long time since Aedan had interacted with humans this much, and under other circumstances, he probably would have been entertained by it. Damon emerged from his closet wearing a clean pair of jeans and holding a t-shirt just as Elena dropped her hand and moved past Aedan into the room. Aedan couldn't help but watch Damon, admiring the way his lover's low-riding jeans concealed nothing of his flat, defined abs or even the bones of his pelvis. He was aware that Elena was watching too as Damon pulled on a simple gray shirt. Finally, Damon ran a hand through his hair and turned toward Elena. "So you woke me up," he said. "What's so important?"

Elena shot a sideways glance at Aedan. "I was hoping we could talk privately," she said.

Aedan had been expecting something of the sort, although it had come sooner than he had hoped. He blinked, reminding himself of his intention to give Damon space to consider his options. "I'm going to take a walk," he said. "That way you two can talk freely." With his vampire hearing, even going downstairs wouldn't create enough distance to prevent Aedan from listening in on their conversation, and he knew he wouldn't be able to resist doing just that.

Damon looked puzzled. "You don't have to do that," he said. He turned to Elena. "Anything you want to say to me you can say in front of Aedan."

Aedan kept his voice low and devoid of emotion. "It's fine, Damon." He pulled on the black t-shirt that he had been wearing earlier, unable to suppress a smile and a glance at Damon as he did so. Damon returned the smile, although he still looked confused and slightly worried about what was going on. Aedan couldn't decide whether that was a good sign and meant that Damon had truly moved on from Elena or whether it meant nothing and Damon would be ecstatic to take Elena into his arms. He reluctantly tore his gaze from the black-haired vampire and pulled on his shoes and socks before grabbing his phone and keys.

Suddenly, Aedan had an idea. He would make one last claim on Damon, offer one last reminder of the pull between them before Elena had her say. He flashed the short distance across the room to stand in front of a surprised looking Damon and kissed him. It was an aggressive, open-mouth kiss, and Damon returned it after the slightest hesitation. As always, Aedan's whole body buzzed with electricity as Damon's talented mouth moved against his own, and he just barely held himself back from drawing Damon's body fully against his and taking things even further. Instead, Aedan pulled away long before he wanted to, reaching up and running a hand through Damon's messy black hair with a smile. He stepped back then, schooling his features to resist smiling at the shocked and flustered look on Elena's face. He nodded at her and left Damon's room.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **_ Once again, I owe everyone an apology for taking so long to get this posted, but here is the new chapter, and maybe it will be cathartic for you if your reaction to last episode was at all similar to mine. Also, fakeituntilyoumakeit has made two really cool banners inspired by this story, so check them out at the polyvore website if you want a visual for Damon and Aedan (it's .com since apparently you can't post whole addresses here): /senseless/set?id=46870489 and /cgi/set?id=47292223.  
><em>

**Chapter 16**

Damon watched as Elena fidgeted slightly as Aedan left the room. His head was still a little foggy from being pulled out of a deep sleep, but something was definitely up. He needed a minute to sort out the meanings behind that kiss, but he knew he wasn't going to get it with Elena standing there impatiently. He was a bit amused by how surprised she looked at watching him kiss Aedan, although he could smell that she was slightly aroused, too. Interesting, but not really surprising. He knew Elena was attracted to him, and he knew that she would never act on it, not really.

Elena interrupted Damon's thoughts. "Thank you for coming after me," she said. "And Stefan." She sounded slightly awkward.

Damon smirked. "You know I'll save you anytime," he said with a suggestive lift of his eyebrows. "But that's not what you wanted to talk to me about, Elena." He waited, wondering what could possibly be so important that she had woken him up and asked Aedan to leave.

Elena glanced toward the door like she wasn't sure if Aedan was really gone yet. After another brief awkward silence, she said, "I've been thinking about things a lot, since you left. I really missed you, and I was afraid that you were never coming back and it made me realize some stuff. And then you almost died today. . . ." She paused, and her huge brown eyes met his. "I want to explore what we have together, Damon," she said.

Damon stared blankly at her. Apparently he had missed quite a bit while he was semi-conscious with wooden bullets in him. He hadn't expected the conversation to take _that_ turn. But Aedan had, he realized suddenly, and that was why the older vampire had left to give them privacy. And why Aedan had kissed him like that in front of Elena. And probably why he been acting weird earlier, too. Shit. "Look, Elena," Damon began uncertainly.

Elena must have sensed his uncertainty because she interrupted him to plow on. "You've been saying all along that there's something between us, Damon," she said. "And I get that now. I understood it while you were gone. I want to figure out what that something is. I'm sorry it took me so long, but I'm ready." Her brown eyes were sincere and open, her full, pink lips parted slightly as she waited for his response. She looked hopeful but also confident, like she knew that Damon would choose her. Of course, he _had_ once told her exactly that.

Damon shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, still a bit stunned. Of course he was tempted. He had wanted to hear Elena say exactly those words for a long time, but he knew that if he said yes, he would lose Aedan. Aedan was both smarter and stronger than him – he would move on as Damon had been unable to do with his hopeless love for Katherine. Damon would lose him, and that was too high a price to pay. "It's too late, Elena," he finally said. "I'm with someone else now."

Elena just nodded. "With Aedan," she supplied, sounding skeptical.

"Yes." Damon thought about the way Aedan had had his back since the hybrids had kidnapped Stefan and Elena. No one had ever come through for him like that before. Damon didn't trust people because they let him down almost every time, but Aedan had never let him down. And it wasn't just that. He thought about their "first date" and the days he had spent at Aedan's house, about sex in the shower just an hour or two ago and that kiss just minutes ago. He felt a small smile on his face.

Unfortunately, the smile might have given Elena the wrong idea. She narrowed her eyes. "Come on, Damon. I know you're just teasing. This is all about trying to hurt me, make me jealous."

Damon felt horrified at that. What had happened to the sweet girl that he had fallen in love with? "Believe it or not, not everything is about you, Elena," he snapped.

Elena's face took on that furious look that Damon knew so well. He had always thought she was cute when she was angry at him. Now he wasn't so sure. "That's the best you can do?" she snapped right back. "He's not your type at all."

Blue eyes went icy, all amusement fading. "What's my type then? Petrova doppelgangers? Because that just worked out _so_ well for me." Damon's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Maybe I have a new type, Elena."

Elena shook her head. "Sorry, Damon. I don't buy it."

Damon looked at Elena with utter sincerity, pale eyes meeting chocolate. He needed her to understand what he was about to say. "I finally found what I've spent a hundred and fifty years looking for, Elena," he said, voice low. "And I found it with Aedan. I'm not willing to jeopardize that, and if you're really my friend like you say you are, you'd be happy for me."

Elena's voice went flat. "You're serious."

Damon nodded. "Yes, I am."

"You've known him for what, a week? You're going to throw away everything between us, everything we've been through, for that?"

Damon shrugged. It had been just over three weeks actually, but that wasn't the point. "I guess I am. It's been a good week."

Damon knew that Aedan would have gotten the joke behind his words and teased him right back about how thoroughly he had rocked Damon's world. Elena just glared at him. "You're unbelievable," she said. "I can't believe I ever thought there was hope for you."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I'm kidding, Elena," he said. "But not about being with Aedan," he clarified immediately as he saw a hint of hope return to her doe eyes. "I'm sorry, but you and I were never right for each other. I was wrong about that. I'll be here to protect you, but you belong with Stefan. He's the one you love." _And both of you are too damn serious for your own good_, Damon added to himself. They could be martyrs together while he had fun with Aedan.

Elena looked sadly at him. "I can't believe you're saying this, Damon. I can't believe you're trying to tell me how I feel."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to tell you how _I_ feel, Elena," he clarified. "It's not my fault your hearing doesn't seem to be working."

Elena opened her mouth to snap back at him, but there was a knock on the door before she could say anything. A blond head peaked in. Caroline shot a look at Elena before she began to speak rapidly, "There you two are. Stefan and I are back from hunting. For bunnies." She dropped her voice to a whisper for the next part, shooting a significant look at Damon. "I think he was eyeing the human blood earlier though, if you know what I mean." Then she continued in her normal voice, "I need to go – my mom promised to be home to cook dinner tonight, if you can believe that, so I should probably pick something up on the way home in case it turns out like most of her cooking. It's not like I need to eat, but she does. I wasn't sure if you wanted someone else to check in on Stefan?" Only when she finally paused did the blond vampire seem to sense the degree of tension in the room. Caroline glanced from Damon to Elena and back before her eyes settled on Elena's face. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "What's going on?" she asked.

Damon stared at her, not sure what to say.

Elena spoke first. "I was just leaving," she said. And she stormed past Caroline and out of the room.

Damon shook his head. That hadn't gone well. He wished someone had warned him so that he could have figured out a way to avoid making Elena so angry with him. Or maybe just avoid that conversation entirely.

Caroline was still standing in the door. "What did you do _now_ to upset Elena?" she asked Damon suspiciously. "She said she needed to talk to you. . . ."

Damon raised his hands hopelessly. "I didn't do anything," he said. That wasn't strictly true, but "I turned her down" seemed too blunt. He would let Elena give Vampire Barbie her side of the story, even if he ended up looking like the bad guy. It was better that way. "Elena's pissed at me – must be Tuesday," he added.

Caroline looked at him with more perception than he expected. "Damon," she began.

Damon waved his hand at her. "Shoo," he said. He wasn't looking for pity, particularly not from Barbie.

Caroline's nascent sympathy disappeared at that, and she glared daggers at him. "Same old Damon Salvatore," she said.

Damon felt bad then. He knew he should probably have been nicer, but he was feeling the stress a bit at the moment. "Don't you have some shopping to do?" he countered caustically.

Caroline tossed her hair and gave him a final glare before turning and walking away.

Damon just stood there, staring sightlessly at his room as he gave the girls time to clear out. Then he had to find Aedan and start fixing this.

•••••

Once he heard both Elena's and Caroline's cars tear away from the boarding house, Damon headed outside and waited impatiently for Aedan to come back. What did taking a walk really mean anyway? Surely it was just an excuse and Aedan was somewhere nearby, waiting for them to finish? Aedan had been gone for a while, and Damon looked around, seeking some sign of which way the older vampire had gone. He would have been worried about almost anyone else, but it was hard to imagine that anything could have happened to Aedan. Even if they hadn't managed to kill all of the hybrids, Aedan could more than take care of himself.

But patience had never been Damon's forté, and he became more and more jumpy as he waited. He checked that Aedan's car was still there, worried that the older vampire might have really left. Surely Aedan wouldn't give up on him, on _them_, that easily, Damon thought. That kiss earlier might have been a reminder to Damon and a challenge to Elena, but it had definitely not been a good-bye kiss. Sure enough, the black SUV sat empty right where they had parked it, and Damon was forced back into waiting. With his vampire senses, he was a good tracker, but he couldn't track Aedan. He couldn't find any evidence of even which direction his lover had gone.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket but stopped with his finger hovering over Aedan's name in his contact list. What would he say? He was afraid that any phone call would seem desperate, and Damon had learned the hard way that desperate was not attractive. So after a long moment of hesitation, he put the phone back in his pocket, unused.

It seemed to take forever before Damon finally heard footsteps that were far too quiet to be a human, and a moment later Aedan sauntered into view, looking completely calm and unruffled. Damon couldn't help but admire the barely restrained power that seemed to radiate from Aedan's body with every movement and the way his casual black t-shirt clung just slightly to his lean, muscular body. He smiled to himself at the mess that either the woods or their earlier activities had made of Aedan's thick, sandy blond hair.

But as sexy as Aedan looked, Damon was also a little annoyed that he seemed so unconcerned when he had made Damon wait so long. Especially because he had thought their relationship was on the line. Shouldn't Aedan have been worried? "Where did you go?" he asked. "You've been gone forever."

Aedan looked unperturbed at his words. "I had some thinking to do," he said. "And the woods around here are beautiful."

"Seriously?"

Aedan smiled, but Damon thought it was a smile carefully calibrated to give nothing away. "You spoke to Elena?" he asked with studied calmness.

Damon nodded. His anger faded at the sight of Aedan's careful attempt at neutrality. He knew Aedan well enough now to be sure that it was a front. He thought about toying with the older vampire before discarding that idea. "Yep. I told her I'm with you," he said bluntly.

Damon thought he saw gray eyes flash with surprise, although it was gone too quickly for him to be sure. "Did you?" Aedan asked quietly. His smile definitely reached his eyes now, but Damon still heard a hint of doubt in his lover's voice. He searched for the right words to explain how he felt without sounding like some cheesy pop song or Hallmark card, either of which would just lead to Aedan laughing at him. And rightfully so.

After a moment, Damon said, "You and me, we work. In my experience, that's pretty fucking rare."

Aedan's eyes brightened with emotion at those words, but the older vampire still shook his head. "If you want to stay in touch with your humanity," he began slowly, sounding reluctant. "You're better off with her. My humanity is long gone."

Damon shook his head. He refused to believe that. "No," he said, fumbling for words again. "Our emotions, that's what ties us to our humanity. And I _know _you feel, and you bring out my emotions, the best kind of emotions. Losing you would make me want to shut it all off, being with you makes me want to feel everything." He paused before adding without thinking, "I love you." Damon froze. He hadn't meant to say those last three little words, and he knew it was too soon. Way too soon. He would scare Aedan away because he always scared people away with the intensity of his feelings. Even Katherine had called him the brother who loved her too much.

But Aedan just closed the distance between them, and he was smiling again, a real smile this time. His gray eyes were bright with happiness that he didn't even try to suppress as he placed his hands on Damon's hips and drew him close. "Vampires," he said with a rueful shake of his head. "When we fall, we fall fast and hard. But that works, too, because I'm crazy in love with you."

It took Damon a second to realize that he didn't have to do damage control, that Aedan not only hadn't flinched from his declaration but had just admitted that he felt the same way. "Really?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Really," Aedan affirmed. "And I think you know that."

"Well, you have been kind of mysterious today," Damon countered with a tilt of his head and a flirty smile. He felt himself relaxing at the realization that this was the emotion that Aedan had tried to keep hidden from him – and the two of them were even more on the same page than he had guessed. Was it actually possible that things would work out for him?

Aedan's grin widened into probably the most open smile that Damon had ever seen from the normally guarded vampire. "I guess I should do something about that," he said. Then his lips were on Damon's. The kiss started as gentle and exploratory, but it escalated quickly as each of them tried to devour the other. Aedan pushed Damon back into one of the columns flanking the front porch, his mouth still hungry on Damon's and his hands seemingly everywhere. When he finally pulled away for a second, one glimpse of the emotion in his gray eyes had Damon drawing Aedan back to him, his hands crawling under the other vampire's t-shirt seeking more skin-to-skin contact. Aedan moaned into his mouth at Damon's touch, and Damon responded by fumbling at the other vampire's fly, not wanting to wait a second longer.

But Aedan's hand covered his, stilling it, and he pulled away just slightly from Damon's kisses. "Here on your front porch?" Aedan asked, and his gray eyes danced with amusement now.

Damon reluctantly shook his head, coming down to earth just slightly. "That might be going too far even for me," he conceded. He didn't need to put on that kind of a show for his brother and anyone who happened to show up at his house. At least not when they could just go inside. He slipped from Aedan's touch to cross the few feet to open the door, but just as he got there, he felt Aedan's arms close around him from behind and draw him back against the other vampire's body. Aedan nuzzled at his neck, and Damon closed his eyes and moaned in pleasure. He loved the feeling that Aedan didn't want to let go of him for even a second, but he finally forced his eyes open. "Are you going to let me open the door?" he asked. His voice was lower and rougher than he had expected.

"Hmmm," Aedan replied, but he did loosen his grip on Damon.

Damon practically kicked open his front door and tugged Aedan in after him. He turned the tables then, shoving Aedan against the wall and accidentally shattering an antique lamp in the process. He didn't even glance at it as he reclaimed Aedan's mouth and pressed their bodies together, feeling Aedan's arousal against his own through their jeans.

That wasn't the first wall they smashed into as they made their way up the stairs and down the hall to Damon's room, and they left a trail of discarded clothing behind them as well. Damon wondered briefly why Stefan hadn't at least come out to make sure the commotion wasn't an attack, but he decided Stefan either knew him well enough or had heard enough to deduce what was going on.

But finally they were in Damon's room and there was no need to wait another second. The last of their clothes flew away, and Aedan pressed Damon down into the bed, fingers stretching him out – finally – even as his lips moved from Damon's mouth to his collarbone and then his neck. Damon tilted his head, waiting for Aedan to bite him, but instead Aedan moved to capture Damon's eyes with his own. His gray eyes were dark, overflowing with the full, overwhelming force of vampire emotion that he usually kept so tightly controlled, and it was an intoxicating sight. Damon didn't think anyone had ever cared about him like that, and he tried to pour his answering emotion into his own eyes and his touch as his hands caressed Aedan's body. Aedan slid inside Damon then, and Damon moaned at the feeling of Aedan filling him only to have that moan stolen away as Aedan reclaimed his mouth for another kiss. He wrapped his legs around Aedan's hips to draw the other vampire even closer.

Aedan was fucking him hard, setting a ferocious pace that threatened to send Damon over the edge any second, but there was an intimacy to it that was different, gray eyes and blue locking, their bodies slick with sweat as they moved together perfectly. Damon wasn't good at intimacy; he shied away from it, more scared of opening his heart than he was of any supernatural threat. But with Aedan he didn't mind, especially on a day when he had nearly died, especially when he could read Aedan's love in his eyes and feel it in the way Aedan linked the fingers of his left hand with Damon's right. Especially when Aedan had said the words that Damon had longed to hear for more decades than he wanted to admit, when he felt certain that Aedan wasn't holding any part of himself back. They knew each other's bodies well now, passion quickly escalating toward climax, and they came together, both crying out as pleasure washed through them.

When he could finally think again, Damon lay stretched out on the bed, muscles liquid. Aedan had collapsed half on top of him before rolling to lie beside him, and Damon turned to face the other vampire and claimed a gentle kiss. He pulled away before Aedan could deepen it, needing to ask something. That had been one hell of an orgasm, but one thing had been missing. "You didn't bite me," he said quietly, trying to hide a very slight feeling of disappointment. Aedan hadn't bitten him earlier that afternoon either.

Aedan was hard to read, even now, but Damon thought he saw matching disappointment in his gray eyes. "You lost too much blood already today," the older vampire explained.

Damon nodded, knowing that Aedan was probably right. He knew his body had been through a lot already that day, and exhaustion was hovering, just waiting for him to give in now that he felt relaxed and sated. His nap earlier had been way too short.

Then Aedan surprised him. "You could bite me," he offered.

Damon started a little at that, but he could feel his fangs pushing to come out at the thought. He had never bitten Aedan, and suddenly he _really_ wanted to. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure," Aedan said, and his expression made it very clear that he was serious.

"Okay," Damon replied with a grin. He wasn't going to bite Aedan just then and there, though. He was going to do it right. He moved in for a kiss instead, sliding his body against Aedan's and letting the other vampire feel his renewed arousal. He moved his hand between them and began to stroke Aedan's hardening cock, slow and smooth. He loved that, as vampires, neither man needed more than a few minutes of recovery time, if that. Aedan moaned as Damon released his mouth and began to move slowly down the older vampire's body, kissing and nibbling with blunt human teeth, teasing Aedan with the promise of what was to come.

Damon sped up his hand on Aedan's cock as he took his time exploring Aedan's body, and Aedan bucked his hips up off the bed in response. "Damon," he gasped breathlessly. "Fuck, I'm close."

Damon pushed him back down. "Patience," he teased. He slowed his caresses for a moment, drawing a growl of frustration from Aedan. Damon paused just long enough to run his tongue along Aedan's cock, tasting the precum that leaked from it. Then he resumed stroking with his hand, faster now, as he licked a spot on Aedan's inner thigh. He finally let his fangs come out just as Aedan's orgasm hit, and he sliced into the soft skin of Aedan's inner thigh as the other vampire convulsed with pleasure. Aedan's blood was amazing, coursing with both pleasure and power, and Damon wanted to moan himself at the taste. He forced himself to draw away before he wanted to, hungrily licking away the last of the blood even as the bite wound knitted itself shut and disappeared.

Aedan lay trembling and boneless under him, and Damon grinned as he crawled back up Aedan's body, pausing to lick away some of the cum on the other vampire's chest. "You taste _good_," he said, dragging out the last word for emphasis. "Powerful," he added as he claimed a kiss. This kiss was long and intense, but eventually even Damon felt the need to come up for air.

Aedan smiled and brought a hand up to stroke the side of Damon's face. "What does powerful taste like?" he asked teasingly. Damon could see the love in the other vampire's gray eyes, and he reveled in it.

"You," Damon replied. He knew his logic was completely circular, but he was too happy to care.

Aedan opened his mouth, undoubtedly to mention the flawed logic, but Damon spoke first. "I know," he said, blue eyes twinkling. "Shut up," he added before silencing Aedan with another kiss. When he was sure that Aedan had forgotten what they had even been talking about, he finally pulled away and settled his head on Aedan's chest, relaxing back into the comfortable position that Elena had pulled him out of earlier.

Damon was close to sleep when Aedan spoke. His mind was apparently still churning despite the multiple orgasms. "I should have trusted you," he said softly. "I'm sorry I didn't."

Damon was pulled back from the verge of sleep by those words. He looked at Aedan, puzzled. "You think too much," he complained lightly.

Aedan smiled at that. "True," he conceded.

Damon ran a finger over Aedan's lips, trying to figure out why it didn't bother him that Aedan had doubted him. "You trusted me enough to step back and believe that I would make the right decision," he finally explained. Not very many people in Damon's life had trusted him to that degree. He wasn't sure anyone had. Plus, now that he thought about it, there was something endearing about Aedan's fear that Damon would prefer Elena. Aedan always seemed so confident and certain of himself, but this proved that he had some of the same self-doubt that Damon had. But Damon didn't say any of those things. Instead he grinned to lighten the mood. "You just shouldn't have taken such a _long_ walk. What were you thinking about, anyway?"

Aedan offered him a slow, rueful smile at that. "What I would do if you decided you wanted to be with Elena," he admitted.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Killing spree?"

Aedan's eyes sparkled with laughter even though his voice was still serious. "Travel," he said. "And hoping you would change your mind."

Damon grinned. "Don't have to if I make the right choice the first time." _For once_, he added to himself before kissing Aedan again. A few minutes later he finally fell into a contented sleep, his limbs tangled with Aedan's, and this time the other vampire joined him.

•••••

**A/N: ** _Bad-ish news is that I think this will be the last new chapter for a while. I definitely want to write more of these two (well, more of Aedan, since all my stories feature Damon), but I have some other stalled stories that need attention, too. I also need to figure out where to take these two – I've got some seeds planted that tie into future plot points, but I have to piece it all together into a coherent story. Not to mention hopefully get some of it written so I don't keep you waiting so long for updates! I may label this story complete, but I do plan to come back at some point, either by continuing it here with more chapters or doing a sequel (if you have a preference, let me know in a review or PM – I am leaning toward just continuing it because I didn't have a great response the last time I wrote a sequel, but it is getting kind of long)._

_Anyway, that's enough rambling. Thank you so much for reading, and as always, any feedback is much appreciated._


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: **_I hope you didn't give up on me, because Damon and Aedan are back! This chapter is a bit fluffy and slightly disjointed, but we are headed for more plot and action so be patient. This one picks up right where the last chapter left off. For those who might not remember, last chapter Damon chose Aedan over Elena. (I tried to compose a summary of the whole story to date to put here, but it turned out awful so I'm not including it. Maybe I will try again.)  
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**Chapter 17**

To Damon's surprise, he woke up the next morning to sunlight trickling past his curtains and a quiet house. No phones rang, and there were no intrusive knocks on his door for once. He could hear that Stefan was home, but his brother was quiet, undoubtedly brooding and applying hair gel and writing in his journal.

Damon lay on his side with Aedan behind him, his arm draped heavily over Damon's hip. He realized Aedan was already awake as the older vampire murmured, "Morning," and pressed closer to him so that Damon could feel Aedan's erection against his backside.

Damon smirked. "It's a very good morning," he replied. He started to turn to kiss Aedan and start things up, but Aedan's strong hands caught him and held him in place before he could move. Damon realized Aedan's intent just a fraction of a second before the other vampire thrust into him in one hard, deep stroke, and he cried out involuntarily. It hurt a little, but there seemed to be some lube involved and Damon's body healed almost instantly anyway. And Aedan knew exactly where to rub inside Damon so that pleasure swamped any lingering pain.

His cry turned into a moan of sheer ecstasy and anticipation as Aedan drew him even closer and kissed his neck. "Mine," the older vampire whispered roughly. Then he abruptly bit down, sharp fangs slicing smoothly into Damon's neck. Damon twitched, his body quivering helplessly at the feeling of Aedan's cock almost painfully large and deep inside of him as the other vampire sucked on his blood. He made an incoherent sound that was half Aedan's name and half wordless cry of pleasure. Aedan's grip was the only thing that kept Damon from writhing wildly as he almost came right then and there at the feeling of being possessed so completely.

Aedan withdrew his fangs too soon for Damon's taste, but then he finally began to move inside Damon with slow, controlled thrusts. Damon was already helpless, muscles liquid with pleasure, but Aedan took his time, moving Damon from one position to another until he was begging shamelessly for Aedan to let them both finish. If anything, Damon's pleasure spiked even further as he finally felt the other vampire losing control and knew that he was the one who took Aedan to the edge. Aedan cried out Damon's name as he came hard inside Damon, his cum filling the younger vampire. Damon nearly blacked out as his own orgasm hit at the same moment, the waves of pleasure almost too much even for him.

A moment later he lay limp and gasping for air on the bed, aftershocks of pleasure still running through his body. He was vaguely aware of Aedan in a similar state beside him. Damon could only imagine what he must look like, but the utterly fucked out expression on Aedan's face and the way the other vampire sprawled languidly on the bed brought a lazy grin to his lips. "That was . . ." he began before regretting starting when words failed him.

Aedan didn't seem bothered by the way Damon's sentence had trailed off. "Just wanted to make sure you know you made the right choice," he said with an answering slow smile.

"Oh, I know that," Damon replied. "There was never any doubt," he added before moving in for a kiss. It was the best morning ever, he decided. And it wasn't even over yet.

•••••

Eventually, though, Damon had to get dressed and head downstairs for blood. He was in the kitchen and Aedan was still upstairs when Stefan walked in. Damon frowned at his little brother's serious expression. "Morning, brother," he said cheerfully.

Stefan's glare seemed best translated as "fuck off," not that his paragon-of-virtue brother would use that particular colorful phrase.

Since he liked to piss people off, especially his brother, Damon pressed on. "Why so glum? Eat a bad bunny this morning?"

Stefan seemed to come to a decision at that. He stopped and turned to face Damon. "I heard what Elena said to you yesterday."

Damon frowned. "Then you heard that I turned her down."

Stefan continued to wrinkle his forehead. "It's not about what you said. It's about what _she_ said," he explained.

_Shit_, Damon thought. That made an unfortunate amount of sense.

Stefan continued before Damon could come up with a response. "How could she have feelings for both of us?" he asked, sounding almost hopeless. His green eyes were filled with pain as they met Damon's. Damon could fill in the rest. How could this happen _again_? He was once again glad that he had found Aedan and been able to pull himself out of his Petrova doppelganger obsession.

Still, Damon was a little insulted that Stefan sounded so disbelieving. "You left her, and I stuck around," he reminded his brother. His little brother looked so stricken that Damon added, "She never stopped loving you, though. She still loves you, Stefan."

"Maybe," Stefan muttered.

Damon sighed and tried again. "She's eighteen, and she's confused. Cut her some slack." Unfortunately, Damon knew he wasn't exactly qualified to offer relationship advice. He was just hoping that he could avoid screwing things up with Aedan, after all.

Stefan didn't say anything further. He just shot Damon a broody look, poured himself a cup of coffee, and left the room.

A moment later, Aedan walked in. He had apparently passed Stefan on the stairs. "Is Stefan okay?" he asked quietly.

"Yep. That's his happy face." Damon's voice dripped sarcasm, but he almost immediately thought better of it. "He's upset about Elena," he admitted. "But there's nothing we can do. Except maybe warn the forest animals."

Aedan just nodded, and Damon was immediately grateful for the other vampire's unruffled reaction. He suspected that minimizing the topic of Elena was a good first step in his plan not to make any more mistakes with Aedan.

"What blood types do we have?" Aedan asked as he headed for the fridge. It was nice, Damon decided, to have another vampire around who shared his attitude toward breakfast. Someone who wouldn't be on his case for drinking human blood. Then he smiled to himself. Who was he kidding? It was nice to have Aedan around in every way.

•••••

Somewhat to Damon's surprise, the relative peace and quiet continued for the next few days. He ignored Stefan's brooding and dodged Elena's visits to the house, not being particularly interested in hearing her try to explain herself to Stefan. But other than that, things were going well. He and Aedan even went to a movie one night. Damon had been to the movies a few times over the summer when Andie had insisted that he needed to get out of the house and stop obsessing over Stefan and Klaus. He thought it would be different going with Aedan. More real, somehow. He had liked Andie well enough, but ultimately she had only been a distraction from his feelings for Elena and his fears for Stefan. With Andie, Damon had been playing at a relationship, pretending. Now he had the real thing. And couples went to movies, right?

"A movie?" Aedan had said when Damon had suggested it. He looked a little surprised. "Sure. Why not?"

Damon had picked a promising-looking action movie, and he and Aedan drew more than a few strange looks from the denizens of Mystic Falls when they couldn't keep their hands off each other in line. Unfortunately the movie wasn't actually very good, and when it didn't hold Damon's interest, he went down on Aedan right there in their seats, loving every second of the other vampire's struggle to maintain enough control not to attract the attention of the entire theater. Of course, Aedan had punished him in the best possible way when they got home, and Damon loved every second of that, too. All in all, he considered it a very successful evening.

•••••

Damon watched as Aedan ran a comb through his damp hair the next morning. They had just gotten out of the shower, and the older vampire was only wearing a towel knotted around his waist. Damon was enjoying the view. "Will you be my date to the stupid Founder's Party at the Lockwood's on Saturday?" he asked.

Aedan glanced at him in the mirror. "Sure. But if it's stupid, why are we going?"

Damon shrugged. "I have to go. I'm the head of the town council to protect Mystic Falls against vampires."

Aedan looked surprised at that. "Seriously? Do they even know?"

Damon grinned. "None of them did, at first. Now a couple do, but most of the Council is still in the dark." He still thought it was one of his more ingenious schemes.

Aedan's smile showed his amusement. "Now I'm curious. Sure, I'll go."

Damon smirked. "Good, because I have a couple of things I've always wanted to do there that I need you for."

"That sounds ominous. Like what?"

Damon's smirk widened. "Blow job in the bathroom."

Aedan's eyes twinkled with amusement at that. "Sinister," he said drily. "Given or received?"

"Either."

"I suppose I need clothes for this party?" Aedan asked.

Damon let his gaze roam openly down Aedan's bare torso, admiring the other vampire's defined muscles. "Naked works for me."

Aedan grinned, a lazy, confident smile that made Damon's insides flutter. "I'm sure it does," he said. "But it might damage your reputation around town."

Damon smirked at him. "Or it might help my reputation," he countered. Aedan looked good naked, after all. The proof was right there in front of him.

"Somehow I doubt your reputation needs any help in that department," Aedan said.

"True," Damon conceded. "Okay, you can wear clothes."

"Thanks." Aedan's voice was dry. Then he added, "Want to come with me to my house to pick some up?"

Damon hesitated. The last time he had left Mystic Falls, Elena and Stefan had been captured by hybrids after all.

"One night. Total privacy," Aedan said enticingly. He could apparently read Damon's mind because he added, "They'll be fine here without you. Stefan's a vampire, too, after all."

"A bunny-eating vampire."

Aedan's shrug said clearly that he shared Damon's opinion of Stefan's diet, but he apparently wasn't willing to concede. "You can't babysit them all the time," he pointed out.

Damon sighed. He was well aware of that, and well aware that Stefan and Elena didn't even want his protection. Most of the time, anyway. Plus Aedan deserved better than to sit around Mystic Falls waiting for the next crisis to strike. "Okay," he said. "Let's go get you some clothes for me to tear off."

•••••

Aedan had insisted that they stop at a home improvement store, of all places, to pick up materials to fix the wall that Damon had damaged. Damon felt guilty enough about that to go along with it, although not without a few jokes about construction workers. But they had finally arrived at Aedan's house.

Damon winced at the sight of the hole that he had made in Aedan's wall. Someone had cleaned up the debris from the wall and the broken chair, but the jagged hole in the drywall was still there. "Sorry about that," he said.

Aedan shrugged. "It's no big deal. It happens."

That was true enough, Damon thought. A certain amount of property destruction came with the territory of vampire emotions.

"I'll have it fixed in no time," Aedan continued. "I'm just going to change first."

"I can't believe you're going to fix it yourself," Damon muttered to Aedan's back as the older vampire headed for the bedroom. He could think of more fun ways to spend their time.

Minutes later, Aedan was back, now wearing faded, torn jeans and an equally faded, torn red t-shirt, both of which looked to have more than a few splotches of dried paint on them. Damon wouldn't have kept them around as rags, let alone worn them.

Damon shook his head with amusement. "Clearly I'm overdressed for this," he said drily.

Aedan grinned. "Do you even have any old, worn-out clothes?"

Damon shrugged. "Not really," he admitted. "I guess I'll just have to watch."

"Home improvement as a spectator sport," Aedan replied. He sounded skeptical.

"It's worked for HGTV," Damon pointed out, and Aedan laughed.

Aedan had almost finished repairing the wall – it _was_ a quick process with vampire skills, and Damon especially liked watching the muscles of Aedan's back through the thin shirt – when Damon's phone rang. He glanced at the screen. It was Elena. He sighed and slipped out of the room with a gesture to Aedan. He didn't care that the other vampire would be able to listen if he wanted to, but for some reason he wanted the façade of privacy for both of them. But he still hesitated for a moment before picking up. What now? Couldn't he have one night alone with Aedan? "Hi, Elena."

•••••

Damon re-entered the living room with a grin on his face. "Elena called to invite us to a barbeque on Sunday," he explained, just in case Aedan had done the polite thing and not listened to the phone call.

Aedan looked puzzled. "She does know we're vampires, right?" he deadpanned.

Damon laughed. "It might have escaped her notice," he joked. Then he added, "I think she's trying to play nice. Mend fences. Plus we're supposedly celebrating Jeremy coming home."

"Jeremy's her brother?"

"Yep. Not really worth celebrating if you ask me. . . ." Damon shrugged and let his voice trail off. "We can always order our hamburgers bloody," he suggested.

Aedan laughed at that. "I suppose we should go," he conceded. His gray eyes roamed hungrily over Damon's body then. "I'm just glad I have you all to myself tonight."

Damon grinned at that look, eying Aedan in turn. He had changed his mind about one thing. "I like that shirt," he said.

"This shirt?" Damon wasn't sure if Aedan was trying to be disingenuous or if he was genuinely confused by Damon's comment.

"That shirt," he affirmed. "It has holes in it. It's barely a shirt at all," he clarified.

Aedan laughed. "Ah," he said. "It's soft, too."

"Is it?" Damon took that as an invitation to step closer and run his hands over Aedan's body. "Hmmm, it _is_ soft." He reveled in the feeling of the hard planes of Aedan's body through the thin cotton of the shirt, but a second later, Aedan had captured Damon's wrists with powerful hands. He pulled the younger vampire's hands away and stripped off the shirt with a flash of speed.

"I like that shirt, too," Aedan admitted at Damon's surprised look. "And I know you were about to tear it off me."

Damon just shrugged. "You got me," he admitted. Aedan's answer was to drop his lips to Damon's. He nibbled at Damon's lower lip before his tongue quested for entrance that Damon happily granted. He reveled in the taste of Aedan as their tongues danced, mouths moving perfectly against each other.

When they finally pulled apart, Damon blinked suddenly heavy-lidded eyes as he tried to slow his breathing. "It's our one-month anniversary, you know," he pointed out after a moment of resting against each other.

Aedan looked at him, slight surprise flashing in his gray eyes. "Hmmm," he said. Damon guessed Aedan was probably surprised at the date that he had picked as the start of their relationship. Then Aedan added with a grin, "You surprised me that morning. Anyone else would have been slinking out of there. You took a shower and stole a shirt."

"Borrowed," Damon corrected. "I gave it back."

"True," Aedan conceded. "Although I think it was more that I took it back."

"You left me breakfast in bed," Damon pointed out, continuing the reminiscence.

Aedan's smile widened. "I did. You were very . . . interesting."

"Interesting? Really?"

"Intriguing," Aedan clarified. "Sexy. Gorgeous."

Damon moved even closer to him. "I like those better," he murmured. He wasn't ready to stop the teasing yet, though. "Still, who answers their door that way? It's not normal."

Aedan's eyes danced with humor, and Damon remembered how he had seen that humor in Aedan's eyes even that first time. It was one of the things that had drawn him in. "Normal is overrated," Aedan countered. "Although I don't _always_ answer my door that way."

"That's good," Damon answered with a possessive smile of his own. Aedan always got to be possessive towards him, and it was time he returned the favor. "Because I wouldn't want you introducing yourself to anyone else like that."

"I promise. Just you." Aedan pinned Damon to the wall then, right next to the newly repaired spot. He effortlessly held the younger vampire in place in a way that combined with their conversation to set Damon's body on fire with remembered pleasure. "So how do you want to celebrate our anniversary?" he asked. His voice was casual, like he hadn't noticed Damon's arousal, but Damon could see that Aedan's eyes had darkened and he could feel the older vampire's hard length pressed against him.

Damon tried to keep his own voice equally calm, but it came out low and husky. "What other toys do you have in that sex dungeon of yours?" he asked. "Since we have total privacy and all."

"Hmm. Lots of toys," Aedan purred as his lips claimed Damon's in an aggressive kiss.

Damon returned the kiss. "Shower first. You have drywall dust – or something – in your hair."

**A/N: **_For those who might not remember the details, Aedan and Damon are reminiscing about events from chapter one and two. And before you get your hopes up, we won't be following them into the sex dungeon next chapter - Aedan promised Damon total privacy, after all - but there will still be smut._


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **_Thank you for all the wonderful reviews of the last chapter! I'm thrilled that you are still interested in this story after such a long break for both it and the show. And welcome to new readers who favorited and alerted it. This story is really close to one hundred reviews, so if you're on the fence about reviewing, please do so and make this only my second story to go over one hundred. (Not a bad accomplishment for an O/C slash story, I don't think - and I couldn't do it without you!) _

_This is another somewhat fluffy chapter before we start to get more into the action soon . . . . Hope you like it!  
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**Chapter 18**

Damon paused outside the front door to the Lockwood house. As always at town events, the door was wide open and welcoming, at least if you weren't a vampire. He could see a good crowd inside the house, although luckily there weren't very many people hovering around the front door at the moment. The fewer witnesses for the next few minutes, the better. Behind him, Aedan turned around to look out over the view from the steps, pretending that he simply wanted to observe the scene before entering. Damon watched him for a moment, admiring the way Aedan filled out the blue-gray suit that he was wearing. Damon thought it went nicely with his own classic black suit. Looking good was always important, after all. Reluctantly, Damon turned back to the house and scanned the crowd until he spotted Carol Lockwood. "Carol," he called, waving her over.

He watched as she smoothly excused herself from talking to an elderly man and came to the door. "Damon," she said with a smile of greeting.

Damon smiled back, keeping his trepidation carefully concealed. This could, after all, go very badly. "Carol, there's someone I'd like you to meet," he said. Aedan turned back around and stepped to his side, and Damon put his hand on his lover's arm. "This is my boyfriend, Aedan." It felt a bit weird to say that, but the look of utter shock on Carol Lockwood's face was more than worth it. Damon turned smoothly to Aedan. "Aedan, this is Mayor Carol Lockwood."

Carol was a good politician, and she recovered quickly. "Pleased to meet you," she said as she held out her hand.

Aedan's answering smile was all charm, even though Damon was certain that most of it was fake. "It's my pleasure, Mayor Lockwood," he replied. Rather than shake her hand, he offered an old-fashioned bow over it.

Carol blushed at the attention, and Damon hid a grin at how easily Aedan had read her. "Please call me Carol," she said. "I hope you enjoy the party." Before she could say anything else, another voice called her name, and she turned away with an apologetic smile.

That phrasing wasn't going to do, however. "Carol," Damon intervened before she could take a step. "You're going to have to invite him in."

Recognition flashed in Carol's eyes. "Damon . . ." she began, sounding worried.

"He's done nothing but help me protect this town and its people," Damon told her. "Trust me." When Carol continued to hesitate, he added smoothly, "We'd hate to miss the party."

Carol didn't miss the veiled threat that Damon would be leaving as well if she didn't welcome Aedan. "Don't make me regret this," she told Damon after another moment of hesitation. She turned to Aedan then. "Please do come in," she said.

Aedan gave her a serious nod. "Thank you," he said. "You have no cause for concern."

Carol's tone didn't soften much. "I hope not," she said. "Now you'll have to excuse me. Enjoy the party." She moved off in the direction of the person who had called her earlier.

Damon let out a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

•••••

Damon realized that he and Aedan should have agreed on some sort of normal story for how they had met when he overheard the third person asking Aedan that very question as a seemingly harmless topic of conversation. Aedan's first answer had been, "A mutual friend set us up, " which Damon supposed was true enough if you considered Katherine a friend. But by the time he had been asked the same question a few more times, he switched to "Damon was referred to me for a business matter, and well, we hit it off." Also, true enough in a misleading sort of way, and Damon hadn't missed the charming smile that Aedan had given to one old woman who asked him. But then Damon overheard, "Well, he showed up at my door like some sort of Jehovah's Witness or traveling salesman, and normally I would have just ignored him, but he's awfully sexy for a Jehovah's Witness, don't you think?" Damon had almost dropped his drink at that, and he had excused himself from a polite and meaningless conversation before Aedan's slightly shocked companion could even answer.

"Excuse us," Damon said as he tugged Aedan toward the bar. He wasn't surprised to see that Alaric had already staked out a spot, and he made a beeline for his friend. He hid his smile as he pretended to ignore the glint of mischief in Aedan's gray eyes. "First of all, they don't call them 'traveling salesmen' anymore," he informed Aedan as he gestured to the bartender for two more drinks. "And second, I thought _I _was supposed to be the one with a short attention span."

"Sorry," Aedan said unrepentantly. "But this is inane. You said stupid. You didn't say endless cocktail party."

"Welcome to Mystic Falls between crises," Ric muttered.

Damon glared at his friend. "Not helping," he told Ric.

"A party like this is only good for one thing," Aedan informed Damon. He stepped closer and whispered in Damon's ear, so soft that even Damon could barely hear. "Hunting."

Damon couldn't exactly disagree, and Aedan's warm breath against his ear caused a shiver of desire to run through him. His fangs ached slightly at the thought of hunting with Aedan, and he forced the bloodlust down with difficulty. "Don't tempt me," he muttered with a glare at his vampire boyfriend. Luckily their drinks arrived then, and Damon chugged his in a couple of quick swallows, letting the burn of alcohol numb the bloodlust that Aedan's words had stirred up. He had been behaving himself for months now, but that didn't mean that it was always easy to stick to blood bags. And Aedan wasn't wrong that this party practically screamed "prime hunting opportunity."

Ric was eyeing both Damon and Aedan skeptically. "I don't want to know what you're whispering about, do I?" he said.

Damon slapped Ric lightly on the back. "Nope," he told him, grateful for the distraction.

Just then, however, one of the town's deputy sheriffs appeared next to them. Damon raised an eyebrow, unable to avoid noticing the man's cheap suit. Either Liz didn't pay her deputies very well or the man had no taste. Oblivious to Damon's look, the man nodded at him. "Damon, Sheriff Forbes needs to speak with you."

Damon nodded back. Hopefully this was nothing serious. He did not want to deal with another crisis right now. "Behave," he told Aedan with a tap on his shoulder. Then he went to look for Liz.

•••••

Aedan kept his eyes on Damon's perfect ass until Damon disappeared into the crowd. He turned reluctantly to his drink.

Alaric glanced sideways at him as Aedan sat down on the barstool beside him. "If I didn't know it was impossible, I'd say you might have actually embarrassed Damon Salvatore," Damon's friend said with a wry tone of voice.

Aedan shook his head, amused. "I doubt that," he replied, thinking of the things he and Damon had done together, mostly involving sex in inappropriate places. He grinned. "Got his attention, though."

"I have to warn you – this town has a real thing for these kinds of events," Ric said.

Aedan grimaced. "Really?"

"Yeah. Most civic-minded town you'll ever visit. Irony is, they get most of the history wrong."

Before Aedan could ask Alaric to elaborate, a short, middle-aged woman had bustled over to them. She barely spared Aedan a glance. "Mr. Saltzman," she said, her voice urgent. "I need to talk to you about my son Chad. His grades have really dropped this semester, and we're worried about him getting in to a good university. I know I should probably make an appointment to meet with you at school, but I saw you sitting over here and I thought I'd take the opportunity. I hope you don't mind mixing business with pleasure."

Aedan was pretty sure from Alaric's expression that the teacher did mind mixing business with pleasure, but Ric wistfully set aside his drink. He shot Aedan an apologetic glance as the woman dragged him off by the arm, chattering about how her husband was around somewhere and would want to hear Ric's ideas because Chad's future was the most important thing, of course.

Alone, Aedan sipped his own drink and turned to scan the crowd. Aedan had hunted at many, many parties just like this one over the centuries, differing only in the types of clothing that were in fashion and what could be insinuated while still remaining within the bounds of acceptable scandal, but he had never enjoyed them the way many vampires did. He suspected it was because he hadn't grown up with the parties of the elite, and he had never truly mastered the art of cocktail party conversation. Or maybe it was because he didn't really like people that much. He had always preferred to select his prey quickly and depart, but tonight he wasn't hunting – and he had already played the game of deciding whom he would choose for dinner if he _were_ hunting here.

His gaze fell on Damon across the room, where his lover looked to be flirting with yet another party guest. Aedan was pretty sure that it wasn't the sheriff he was talking to either. The sheriff probably wasn't the flowy sundress type. Aedan chugged his drink and held it out to the bartender for a refill. He was well aware that Damon didn't mean anything by his constant flirting – this was nothing like the situation with Elena where Aedan had feared that he might lose Damon – but the vampire in him was too possessive to enjoy seeing _his_ Damon flirt with an entire party full of humans. He turned back to the bar rather than watch anymore.

A moment later, Aedan frowned and put down his new drink as his threat instincts warned him that someone was watching him. Before turning around, he extended his senses, listening for any clues as to who or what he had sensed. But he couldn't pick out anything beyond the mindless chatter and low background music of the party.

Aedan turned around with deceptive casualness and again scanned the crowd. His gaze skipped over a slim dark-haired woman who tried to meet his eyes with a flirty smile. He was pretty sure that she was human and not the threat that he sensed. But he didn't see anyone who looked suspicious or anyone that he recognized beyond Damon and Alaric. Finally he let his gaze rest on Damon, who was now talking animatedly with a woman with short blond hair on the other side of the room. This one might be the sheriff that Damon had said was his friend, Aedan thought. He smiled automatically. Damon certainly did look good in a suit, he couldn't help but note for about the tenth time since they had gotten dressed for the party.

A moment later his thoughts were pulled back by a female voice at his side. "You look like you're looking for someone."

He glanced down to see that the pretty dark-haired woman had stationed herself at the bar beside him. He shrugged casually. "I had a feeling someone was watching me," he admitted. He took another sip of his drink.

The woman smiled. "Guilty," she said. "I don't think I've seen you around town before?"

Aedan smiled, automatically falling into centuries of practice at charming his prey. "Is it that obvious?" The woman was quite pretty, definitely human, and in another time and place, she would have made an excellent distraction and meal for the night. He was amused to note that she had in fact been on his mental list of possible prey.

The woman shrugged. "It's a small town. Everybody kind of knows everybody else. I'm Meredith, Meredith Fell."

"Aedan."

"It's nice to meet you, Aedan," Meredith said. She signaled to the bartender for a drink. "Is this your first founders' event?"

"It is," Aedan conceded with a rueful smile. "Are they all like this?"

"Pretty much." Meredith's answering smile was sympathetic. "The Fells are one of the founding families, so I've been going to these things since I could walk. It was kind of a relief to go away to medical school and miss a few years of them."

"You're a doctor?" When it came to this kind of conversation, Aedan was a minimalist. He was tempted to flirt with the woman given that he had been watching Damon flirt with everyone at the party, but his heart wasn't in it. Maybe he was just out of practice. Or maybe Damon's claim on his heart was just too strong for Aedan to even pretend interest in someone else right now.

"Yes, I'm working at Mystic Falls Hospital now. What do you do for a living?"

Aedan shrugged and gave one of his stock answers. "Investing and real estate. Boring stuff, I'm afraid." He smiled to remove any sting from his words.

Meredith smiled back. "What brings you to Mystic Falls?" she asked intently. She touched his arm lightly before picking up her drink again. She was definitely flirting with him now, and Aedan decided it was time to end the charade.

"I'm here with Damon Salvatore," he said bluntly.

He watched the recognition slowly bloom in Meredith's eyes. "Oh, like _here _here," she said.

Aedan nodded.

Meredith blushed. "I should have known," she said ruefully. "All the good guys are either married or gay."

Aedan felt a tiny bit bad then. "I'm not really one of the good guys," he told her, thinking just how true that was. He had, after all, just been thinking of Meredith as dinner.

Meredith shook her head, however. "Sure, you are. You could have let me keep making a fool of myself."

Aedan was saved from having to respond by Alaric's return, and he watched as Meredith eyed Ric with interest. Humans. He ordered another drink and hoped that Damon would come back soon. Or he really would be tempted to eat someone.

•••••

Damon finally found Liz next to an archway that led to the hallway. He was happy to learn that there was no new supernatural crisis – she just wanted to check on the agenda for the Council meeting later. Damon tamped down his irritation at being pulled away from Aedan for that and dutifully ran through the agenda with her.

"So I hear you brought a date?" Liz said when they were done with business. "You two are the subject of half the gossip tonight," she informed Damon at his surprised look.

Damon flinched a little. As much as he had looked forward to shocking Carol, he kind of dreaded telling Liz that he had switched teams. He was afraid it would bring back bad memories of her marriage falling apart, and Liz was his friend. Of course, she was better off without that nut job Bill Forbes, anyway. "Yeah. His name's Aedan," he told her. "I think you'll like him."

Liz looked at him seriously. "The day I asked you to be in the bachelor auction, you told me that someone broke your heart. That wasn't an act, was it?"

Damon spoke quietly. "No." He was surprised that she even remembered that. He certainly tried not to.

"And now?" Liz asked.

Damon's eyes fell on Aedan. The older vampire was still at the bar, talking to Alaric and a slim woman with long, dark hair that Damon vaguely recognized as a newcomer to the Council. He watched as Aedan laughed at something that Alaric said and took a drink. "Aedan's putting it back together," he finally admitted.

Liz nodded. "Then I'm happy for you, Damon," she told him sincerely.

Damon just nodded back, feeling uncharacteristically emotional. He was clearly spending too much time around humans.

Damon frowned. Aedan looked like he was having a better time now, and Damon felt a surge of jealousy. He wondered what had possessed him to want to share Aedan with the rest of Mystic Falls. He should have found an excuse to skip this party. "I'll see you at the meeting," he told Liz. He tried not to make eye contact with anyone as he wove his way back across the room to the bar. And Aedan.

Damon thought the noise of the party might have been enough to allow him to sneak up behind Aedan, but the older vampire turned around just before Damon closed the distance between them. Damon forced down a slight feeling of disappointment. He had hoped to surprise his boyfriend. Instead, he just ran his hand down Aedan's arm. "Hey there," he said.

Aedan smiled. "Hey."

Without even thinking about it, Damon shifted closer to Aedan and kissed him lightly. Aedan wasn't the only one who could stake his claim, after all. "I want to show you something," Damon said. He lifted his eyebrows suggestively and tugged on Aedan's arm.

Aedan apparently read his mind because he stood up immediately. He nodded to Alaric and the woman whose name Damon was still trying to remember. She was a Fell, he decided. Mary? No, Meredith. That was it.

"Sorry," Aedan told his drinking companions, sounding less than apologetic. "I'm being dragged away."

"I'm borrowing him for a few minutes," Damon informed Ric and Meredith.

Ric snorted. "You do that," he said. Damon thought neither he nor Meredith looked too sorry to see them go. He might have to look into this Meredith person and see if she was good enough for Ric.

Minutes later, they had successfully escaped the main party. Damon glanced around surreptitiously as they reached their destination. Luckily, the hallway was clear, and Damon pulled Aedan into an over-decorated powder room. He locked the door behind them and turned around, eyes sparkling with excitement.

Aedan immediately pushed Damon back against the sink and kissed him aggressively, apparently just as impatient as Damon. "Time for wish fulfillment," he murmured when he pulled away. His hands dropped to Damon's trousers, unfastening them and pushing them down around Damon's ankles.

Damon was already getting hard at the promise of a blow job from Aedan, but he whispered, "You sure?" They hadn't established who would give and who would receive, after all.

Aedan gave him an evil smile. "Oh yes," he said. "I still owe you for the movie theater the other day."

"You got me back for that," Damon said before it dawned on him what Aedan meant. He had done his absolute best to make it impossible for Aedan to keep quiet, and he was suddenly certain that was what Aedan planned to do to him. He was torn then between a flash of worry – Aedan was very, very skilled with his mouth, after all – and anticipation. Anticipation and horniness won out, of course, as Aedan dropped to his knees and began to ply Damon with his fingers, lips, and tongue.

A moment later Damon's fingers were locked in Aedan's hair, and he was biting his own tongue to keep from crying out as Aedan teased his cock. That proved counterproductive when he bit down too hard and tasted blood. He was a vampire, after all, and a loud moan slipped out as the coppery taste triggered another set of sensations. The resulting satisfied little purr from Aedan vibrated against his cock and only made Damon shiver and buck forward with helpless desire. Desperate, he pulled one hand from Aedan's hair to reach blindly for the light switch by the door. He flicked on the fan to give himself some cover even as another moan escaped. Aedan teased him for a long few minutes, and the quiet buzz of the expensive fan hardly helped hide Damon's moans and whispered curses. Finally, Aedan took pity on him and sped up his ministrations until Damon came explosively in the other vampire's hot mouth.

Aedan's hands stayed on Damon's hips as he stood up and claimed a kiss. Damon stifled another moan as he tasted himself on Aedan. It was all too damn good.

Aedan's hair was wild from Damon's fingers and his gray eyes were still dark with desire when he pulled away. "You cheated with the fan," he teased.

Damon was still trembling with the aftermath of orgasm. "It wasn't cheating. It was being creative," he argued a little breathlessly.

"Cheating," Aedan repeated. He glanced past Damon, and his eyes flashed with mischief. "I'll show you creative," he said. He pushed the jacket that Damon was still wearing down off his shoulders and began to unbutton the shirt underneath.

"What are you doing?" Damon asked. It was a bit of a stupid question since Aedan was clearly finishing undressing him, but there was a party going on just outside the door after all.

"This might get messy," Aedan replied. A second later he had hung Damon's jacket and shirt on the towel hook on the door and removed his own pants and underwear. Before Damon could object, he was flipped around. He realized Aedan's idea then, because a huge mirror hung above the sink and he watched as Aedan bent to nuzzle his neck and bite. He was hard again instantly at the sight of Aedan's fangs sinking into his neck, and he trembled as he felt Aedan slide a finger inside him.

"Do you think Carol keeps lube in here?" Aedan murmured. His fangs had receded, but his lips were still red with Damon's blood.

"No," Damon whispered breathlessly. "But Tyler might." He smirked at the thought, although it turned into a gasp as Aedan inserted a second finger and began to scissor them. Damon's eyes fell on the faucet in front of him, and he fumbled to turn on the water to provide more cover for the noise he knew he would inevitably be making, his usual dexterity gone as his entire body trembled in anticipation. A second later he was groaning out a muffled curse as Aedan entered him.

It might not be the most comfortable place to have sex, but Damon realized the genius of Aedan's idea almost immediately. The visual of Aedan taking him from behind was hands-down the hottest thing Damon had ever seen. The other vampire's pupils were completely blown, and Damon watched in the mirror as ecstasy washed over his lover's face as he drove into Damon again and again. His own debauched, helpless look was almost as hot as pleasure washed through him and he realized just how thoroughly Aedan had claimed him. So fucking twisted and so fucking perfect. Sparks flashed across his vision as Aedan brought him to climax, but Damon stubbornly kept his eyes open, wanting to see Aedan fall apart in turn. He wasn't disappointed, and he watched Aedan shudder with release even as he felt the older vampire pump warmth into his body.

Finally they were both gasping for unnecessary air, slumping against the marble countertop. Damon shifted and drew Aedan in for a kiss, his tongue plunging deep into the other vampire's mouth. "That did beat my idea," he conceded when he finally pulled back.

"I might have to reevaluate my opinion of this party," Aedan murmured. His voice was low and rough.

Damon grinned. "You think?" he asked. He reluctantly moved to clean himself up, knowing that he had already been absent from the stupid party for too long. Sure enough, he had just pulled his clothes on when his phone beeped, and he fished it out of his pocket. It was a text from Alaric: _Where r u? The mtg is starting._

"Fuck," Damon cursed. He couldn't believe that he had to go to a Council meeting right now. And there was another problem. "How am I supposed to go to the meeting like this?" he asked Aedan with a mock glare. He might be dressed, but he knew he still looked like he had just gotten the fucking of a lifetime.

Aedan just shrugged, looking all too pleased with himself. Damon's glare turned a bit sharper. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to calm it, and checked the buttons on his shirt. "You look just as fucked out, you know," he reminded Aedan as his gaze traveled over the other vampire's satiated expression and wild hair.

"I'll just pretend I'm drunk," Aedan said with a grin. "I have been hanging out at the bar all night."

"It's not really the same look," Damon pointed out.

Aedan shrugged again, clearly unconcerned. "It's not like anyone here knows me. I'm not a prominent citizen like you are. A pillar of the community."

"Fuck you," Damon said lightly. He reached up to try to smooth Aedan's hair slightly, then kissed him quickly. "I just want them to _think_ that I'm a responsible citizen," he countered.

"I don't know. You seem to spend a lot of time saving people around here," Aedan teased.

Before Damon could protest further, a knock sounded at the door. Aedan grinned at him. "You go to your meeting, I'll compel," he whispered.

"What if they're on vervain?"

"Then I'll charm."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine," he conceded. He opened the door to find an older woman with her hand raised to knock again. She gave him a bewildered look that Damon answered with his best dazzling smile before hurrying back to the party. Aedan could deal with her. Even though he was already late, Damon stopped at the bar before heading for the meeting, signaling for a drink to take the edge off. So he was still standing there waiting impatiently for his bourbon when Aedan entered the main ballroom.

Aedan met his eyes and winked. As Damon watched, the older vampire grabbed the arm of a woman standing nearby and launched into an over-the-top imitation of being drunk, complete with slurred words and a fake stumble. The calm, collected, five-hundred-year old vampire pretending to be falling down drunk was just about the funniest thing Damon had ever seen, and he was laughing almost too hard to down his own drink. He was still chuckling as he opened the door to the back room where the Council was meeting, and his undignified entrance earned more than a few glares from around the room. Damon didn't care in the slightest.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: **_Yeah, triple digit reviews equals a happy dance! Hard to believe this story started out as a smutty one-shot and then was going to be a neat and tidy seven chapters before the characters refused to let me wrap it up and they, plus you lovely readers, inspired me to write more. So thanks as always for reading, favoriting, and reviewing, and hope you like it.  
><em>

**Chapter 19**

Damon escaped from the Council as soon as the meeting ended, eschewing his usual habit of checking in with Liz and Carol. They could call him tomorrow if there was anything important to talk about. For now, he was sure Aedan was ready to leave, and he more than impatient to get back to the privacy of the boarding house. He quickly spotted Aedan back at the bar, and he smiled as he wondered if the older vampire was still keeping up his drunk act. But before Damon could take more than a couple of steps in that direction, he felt an uneasy feeling pass over him. Damon had learned better than to ignore his instincts, and he stopped, scanning the room for the threat that he sensed.

His gaze settled on a tall, slim woman with red – or maybe brown – hair who was turning away from him. She had moved just quickly enough that he hadn't caught her features, and he watched as she slipped out of the room. He would have followed, but there were dozens of people between him and the door the woman had taken and rushing after her through the party would just draw unnecessary attention. He had already done a poor job of blending in at this party, which probably meant he should keep a low profile for the remainder of the evening. That couldn't be who it looked like anyway, Damon thought. It looked like his old mentor Sage, but he hadn't seen Sage in decades – just about a hundred years in fact – and he couldn't imagine what would bring her back to Mystic Falls now.

So Damon continued across the room to where Aedan was waiting at the bar. He tried to shake off his uneasy feeling. At some point it all had to stop, right? "Ready to go?" he asked.

Damon thought he had sounded casual, but Aedan knew him well. "What's wrong?"

Damon shrugged. "I thought I saw a ghost."

Aedan raised an eyebrow at him. "I hope not literally," he said.

Damon laughed. "No, that's Jeremy's thing." Fucking Mystic Falls. The place was messing with his head. "It was probably nothing. Overactive imagination."

Aedan smiled at that. "Let's go then. Put that imagination to better use."

Damon grinned. "Definitely."

•••••

Damon moved to pour himself a drink when he and Aedan entered the boarding house. He had been too busy most of the night to fortify himself with as much bourbon as he usually consumed to get through those things. He looked questioningly at Aedan. "Drink?"

"Sure." Then Aedan added, "Do you know how many drinks I had tonight?"

Damon tilted his head, curious. "No. How many?" When Aedan just shrugged, he asked, "Are you drunk?" It could be fun, if Aedan was drunk. He could see if the reality in any way resembled the act from earlier, although it was pretty clear that Aedan wasn't _that_ drunk.

He felt slightly disappointed when Aedan shook his head. "Nah. I'm old. It takes a lot to get me drunk."

Damon grinned and passed the other vampire a drink. "That sounds like a challenge," he said. "But maybe one for another night." It would undoubtedly take a while to get Aedan drunk, and Damon had other plans for the rest of the evening. Although he would have an advantage tonight since _he_ hadn't spent the whole night at the bar. Unfortunately. "Are you at least buzzed?" he asked.

Aedan smiled too at that. "A little," he conceded.

Damon smirked, but he sobered after a moment. "So did you really hate the party? Despite the open bar?" He sipped his drink, trying not to show that he was worried about what Aedan might say, worried that Aedan hadn't had a good time. What if he decided he couldn't stand Mystic Falls – not that Damon could blame him if he did – and wanted to leave?

"Most of it," Aedan admitted. "You know what part I didn't hate."

Damon's grin returned. Yes, he did know. What he said, however, was, "Sorry I dragged you with me." Then he couldn't believe that he had just apologized for something so trivial. He was Damon Salvatore – he didn't care what other people thought or if other people had a good time. Except he did care about Aedan, and he wanted to make Aedan happy.

"It's fine," Aedan said. "It may not be my favorite thing, but I can handle a party."

"Still, there was no reason you had to go."

Aedan shrugged. "You wanted a date," he said.

The words slipped out before Damon's brain could intervene to stop them. "I've never really been in a relationship before," he confessed softly. "Not a real one, anyway." There had been a few months with Andie, his fake, compelled girlfriend as Ric had called her, and once he had spent a couple of years with Bree, trading sex for her knowledge of magic and using her feelings for him even as he remained focused on freeing Katherine from the tomb. But this was the first time it had been real. The first time Damon's heart had been involved and his feelings had been returned. He didn't really know what he was supposed to be doing here. He was used to one-night stands, not trying to build a relationship, and he was still afraid that he would mess everything up.

"It's been a few hundred years since I've been in one," Aedan replied sympathetically. "We'll have to figure it out together."

"Okay," Damon agreed with a smile. He relaxed a little. Just like when he had first accidentally admitted his feelings, Aedan didn't seem the least bit thrown by his honesty, and Damon's voice had regained its usual humor as he continued, "How hard can it be? All the humans do it." He suddenly felt a sense of relief at having admitted to Aedan that this was uncharted territory for him, even if it was what he had always wanted. Damon had been around too long to think that getting what you wanted was always – or even usually – a good thing.

Aedan moved closer to him and his gray eyes captured Damon's. "I'll even go to stupid parties for you," he said. "As long as you don't ask me to do it too often."

"That's fair," Damon agreed. The look in Aedan's eyes was robbing him of breath. There was so much emotion – so much love – there. Damon was definitely starting to see an upside to the wild, overwhelming intensity of vampire emotions. Aedan kissed him then, and Damon could taste the alcohol that Aedan had consumed that night. It was a long, luxurious kiss as they took their time exploring each other's mouths, pressing their bodies together like teenagers as if they hadn't been all over each other in the Lockwood's powder room barely more than an hour previously.

Finally Aedan pulled away just slightly. His gray eyes danced with light from the fire as he looked curiously at Damon. "What are you thinking about right now?"

Damon hesitated, wondering if he dared be honest again. "You and me," he finally admitted. "How good this feels."

He was rewarded for his honesty as a warm, open smile crossed Aedan's face. "I'm glad," the older vampire said.

Damon loved that smile, loved seeing Aedan's normal reserve fall away as his face and his eyes lit up. That smile was new since Damon had told Aedan that he loved him, and that told Damon that it was all for him. It was crazy to think that he made someone that happy, but it was a good kind of crazy.

Aedan cocked his head, still smiling. "So, we survived the party. What else do you want to do tonight?"

"Well, sex. Obviously," Damon answered. He did his eye thing, even though he knew he didn't really need to seduce Aedan anymore. It was a foregone conclusion that the night would end with at least one more orgasm apiece, after all.

"That's not very specific," Aedan pointed out teasingly.

Damon's moment of introspection had passed, and he was feeling more like his usual self again – which meant that he liked nothing (well, maybe not _nothing_) more than pushing boundaries. He tilted his head and offered a flirty smile that he knew Aedan had never been able to resist. He wasn't sure if that was because Aedan really couldn't resist him or because the older vampire had never really wanted to, but the details hardly mattered. What mattered was that Damon was sure they'd end up upstairs in bed and it would be fun. And part of the fun would be in the process of getting there. "What if I want to be on top?" Damon asked.

Truthfully he didn't know what Aedan's answer would be, and he didn't really care. Most likely Aedan would assert his dominance as he usually did – and Damon would have been more than happy with that. But whether it was all the drinks he had consumed or just a particularly relaxed mood, Aedan just smiled again. "Hmmm, that sounds fun," he said. The darkening of his eyes told Damon that Aedan might actually be serious, and he felt his cock suddenly straining against his pants in anticipation.

Damon moved quickly, hoping Aedan wasn't going to change his mind, and slammed Aedan into the wall. He kissed Aedan aggressively, pleased when the older vampire continued to let him take charge. Damon suddenly wished that they were at Aedan's house, or that Stefan had a social life these days and wasn't always home, because he wanted to take Aedan right then and there. Maybe bend him over the couch. Instead, Damon tugged him toward the stairs, and Aedan followed with an amused sound.

Upstairs and with the door closed behind them, they each stripped off their clothes by silent mutual agreement. Then Damon pressed Aedan into a wall again and held him there as his lips claimed the other vampire's and his tongue explored Aedan's mouth then trailed down to the hollow of his neck. He glanced up for a minute, wondering if it was okay to bite today, and Aedan expression told him that it was more than okay. Damon didn't waste any more time then, and his fangs sliced delicately into Aedan's neck. Aedan still tasted powerful, and Damon could taste a hint of the alcohol that Aedan had consumed, making him pause for a moment and wonder how buzzed Aedan actually was. He showed off his control as he pulled away after just a moment, making the bite almost a tease of pleasure for both himself and the other vampire. The neat wound healed instantly, and Damon licked away the last of the blood with a twinge of regret. Only a twinge, though, because he still had bigger plans for the rest of the night.

Damon kept his focus moving south next, and he nibbled at one of Aedan's nipples even as he wrapped his hand around his boyfriend's already-hard cock. Aedan moaned loudly as Damon stroked him, and Damon pulled back far enough to see that his gray eyes were black with lust.

Damon shoved him toward the bed then, hard, and Aedan went with it, going straight to his hands and knees. Damon grinned with anticipation. Like that then? Fucking awesome. In seconds he was stretching Aedan out, and then he was pushing deep inside of him. Aedan pushed back almost immediately, drawing Damon even deeper, and Damon wasn't sure which of them was making the louder sounds of pleasure. Aedan felt exquisitely tight, and he was utterly gorgeous as he felt apart under Damon's thrusts, all control lost. Damon was aware that Aedan didn't give up control lightly, that it was a rare mood that made him willing to switch roles, and he intended to take full advantage.

It wasn't easy to maintain _his_ control, though, and Damon concentrated on driving his partner over the edge until Aedan came hard, clenching around Damon. A moment later Damon followed him, spurting into Aedan in a blissful release. They both collapsed to the bed, and after a moment to catch his breath, Damon shifted to look at the other vampire. Aedan's gray eyes had a slightly dazed, well-fucked look, his hair was wild, and he lay boneless, his strong body covered with a sheen of cum and sweat. He looked thoroughly debauched, Damon thought with a sense of satisfaction. "This time _I_ fucked _you_ senseless," Damon said with a smirk as he licked cum from Aedan's chest, purring happily.

Aedan smiled lazily at him. "Yes, you did," he said. "I'll be sure to return the favor tomorrow."

Damon grinned in return. He stretched up and kissed Aedan, deep and slow, reveling in the feeling of Aedan's mouth against his own. So fucking perfect. Damon had no intention of ever giving this up. "I'm counting on it," he replied as he finally ended the kiss. He settled his body into his favorite position pressed against Aedan, sighing contentedly. He could feel it as Aedan's breathing deepened into sleep, and he loved the utter relaxation that he could feel in the older vampire's body. He shifted slightly to watch Aedan sleep. Aedan told Damon often that he was gorgeous, and Damon knew it was true (there was no point in false modesty after all) but he thought Aedan was stunning, too. He had heard more than a few women, and a couple of men, speculating about Aedan at the party that night. But, Damon thought with a satisfied little smirk, Aedan was all his.

Minutes later he joined Aedan in sleep.

•••••

_Damon was floating above an indistinct version of his room. White fog surrounded him, limiting his vision, but it wasn't cold or wet like real fog. In fact, he didn't really feel anything at all. He looked down to see himself and Aedan curled up together on his huge bed, fast asleep. Clearly, then, he was dreaming, Damon decided, but it was a hell of a weird dream. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see that a woman had slipped into the room. Damon watched her for a second, trying to make out details through the fog. (And why was his room foggy anyway?) She was tall and slim with long hair, but he couldn't see her features or even be certain of the color of her hair. It was like he couldn't focus well enough, like his vision was fuzzy. Damon watched from his vantage point somewhere by the ceiling as the woman crossed to the bed, her heels clicking on the floor with every step. _

_Damon felt a surge of panic at that. Why wasn't he waking up? It wasn't like the woman was even moving silently. He tried to dive back into his body and make himself wake up, but nothing happened. He tried to shout at himself, but no sound came out. He could only float there and watch as the woman touched his forehead. Her hand rested there for a long moment, and to Damon's immense frustration, his body didn't even stir and he couldn't do anything other than watch helplessly._

_When the woman finally pulled her hand away from Damon's forehead, he felt a flash of relief. It was gone a moment later, however, as she reached over and placed her fingers on Aedan's temple. Damon felt a renewed surge of horror at that. It was bad enough that she had done something to his body, but he did not approve of her touching Aedan. And just like he should have awoken immediately at the intrusion to his bedroom, Aedan should have been awake by now. Damon tried again to make his limbs move, tried again to shout to Aedan to wake up, but he was completely powerless, trapped in a fog that wouldn't let him move or speak. He was forced to watch as the woman kept her hand on Aedan's head. She frowned slightly, as though she were struggling a little, but then her face relaxed and she smiled. A second later she stood up from the bed and left the room without a backward glance._

_As the door closed behind the woman, Damon crashed back down into his body and back into an undisturbed, dreamless sleep._


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: **_Sorry this took a little while. Thanks for reading and reviewing! _

**Disclaimer: **_I haven't included this in a while, so just as a reminder of the obvious - I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters from the show. I do own Aedan._

**Chapter 20**

The ringing of his phone woke Damon. With a groan he rolled away from his comfortable, warm spot snuggled against Aedan. He reached over to the bedside table and snagged the phone, fumbling to answer the call. "What?" he groused.

It was Elena's voice, sounding slightly frantic. _"Damon, where have you been? I've called you three times. Do you have any grilling tools? Jeremy and I can't find where Jenna put ours after the last barbeque." _When he didn't answer immediately, she continued, _"You're still bringing a pie from the Grill, right? I mean, I haven't made any other plans for desert."_

"Fuck, slow down, Elena," Damon muttered, thoroughly confused. Why was she waking him up to talk about pies? "What time is it?"

"_It's, uh, 1:20 You guys are getting here at 4:00, right? I want to have time for some games before we eat."_

"1:20? You're kidding." Damon pulled the phone away from his ear and peered at the time. Sure enough, it said 1:17pm. What the hell? He glanced over at Aedan, who was still fast asleep. Beyond the fact that two vampires sleeping in past noon was unprecedented, this phone conversation should have woken the other vampire. Elena was practically shouting into the phone, for one thing. "I'm gonna have to call you back, Elena," Damon said. He hung up and stared at Aedan. His boyfriend didn't look like he was in pain, and Damon didn't see any signs of injury. But he was obviously still asleep and that was . . . not right.

Fighting his feeling of trepidation, Damon crawled back across the big bed and shook Aedan's shoulder. "Aedan?"

He was rewarded by a sleepy little sound and a slight stirring.

"Aedan, wake up," Damon repeated. He shook his boyfriend's shoulder a little harder. It wasn't like he was going to hurt Aedan, after all.

Aedan blinked and opened his eyes. "Morning," he said with a lazy smile. Then he apparently saw Damon's worried look. "What's wrong?"

"It's 1:20," Damon explained. "We slept all morning. Like hung-over teenagers or something."

"Huh," Aedan said eloquently. He looked as confused as Damon felt. Then he grinned. "Too much sex?"

Damon couldn't help but return that smile. "Maybe," he replied, dragging out the word teasingly. But the past couple of years in Mystic Falls had taught Damon to be even more suspicious than it was his nature to be. "Do you feel okay? I feel okay."

Aedan frowned. "I feel fine." He stretched, and he looked better than fine to Damon. But Damon's phone rang again before he could act on that thought.

It was Elena again, of course. _"Damon, are you okay? What's going on?"_

Damon decided there was no need to worry Elena when he didn't even know if something was wrong. "Everything's fine, Elena."

"_It didn't sound fine earlier." _Elena sounded suspicious, and Damon cursed the fact that she knew him a little too well – and she had those Mystic Falls threat instincts, too.

"Nothing to worry about except your barbeque, Elena," Damon deflected. Elena might have been spending a little too much time with Caroline lately; she was downright obsessive about this stupid barbeque, and he could use that against her. "You did taste test all the available barbeque sauces, right? And buy organic tomatoes?"

"_Shut up, Damon." _Elena sounded mollified by his teasing. Operation deflection was successful. _"You're bringing the pie, right?"_

Damon rolled his eyes at Aedan, whose own eyes were twinkling with laughter. "Pie, check. Don't _you_ forget the pickles. We'll see you later, Elena." He hung up again.

Damon stared at the rumpled bed and its very sexy occupant. Memory flickered on the edges of his mind. "I had a weird dream last night," he said slowly, trying to capture the memory. "I was floating above the bed, watching us sleep. I couldn't wake up. Couldn't wake you up either." He searched his mind, knowing that wasn't the important part. Fuck, things were fuzzy.

Aedan's gray eyes were trained intently on him, serious now. "Why did you want to wake up?" the other vampire asked softly.

Damon had it then. "Shit," he cursed. He stared at Aedan. "There was someone else in the room. A woman. I watched her come in, and she came over to the bed and did . . . something." He frowned. He couldn't picture the woman, and that wasn't good. "Why didn't we wake up?" he asked Aedan. "Nobody's that quiet." They were fucking vampires, after all.

Aedan was frowning now too. "It could have been metaphorical," he said slowly.

"Or she did something to us, whoever she was," Damon countered. Then another thought crossed his mind. He extended his hearing through the house. Nothing except what might be very quiet, slow breathing downstairs. Nothing at all from Stefan's room. "Stefan," he exclaimed worriedly. What if the strange woman had hurt Stefan? Damon was out of the bed in a flash, taking only enough time to pull a pair of jeans out of his drawer and over his hips.

Aedan was right behind him as he sped out of his room and down the hallway to Stefan's room. He shoved open the door without a thought for his brother's privacy, but it didn't matter because the room was empty. The bed was messy, but it was made and it didn't look like his brother had slept there the previous night. Stefan's scent was all over the room, of course, but Damon didn't think it was particularly fresh. Not as fresh as it should have been if Stefan had been there that morning. He cursed again, feeling panic rising in him.

"There's someone downstairs," Aedan whispered. He sounded calm, though, as if he were commenting on the weather, and that helped Damon hold it together.

"Right," he whispered in the same near-silent tone. If another vampire or some other supernatural creature was involved, they needed to be careful. Damon moved back out of Stefan's room and down the stairs, fast but as quietly as he could move. It was reassuring to know that Aedan was right behind him because, whatever might have happened the previous night, he continued to believe that there was nothing Aedan couldn't handle. Damon followed the sound of breathing into the library and stopped abruptly. If it had been anyone but Aedan following him, they would have collided, but somehow Aedan managed to stop fast enough to avoid running into Damon.

Stefan was asleep on one of the couches. "Fuck," Damon cursed as he realized that it was Stefan's breathing that they had heard. There was nothing to worry about. "We're idiots."

"Why is he asleep?" Aedan countered.

Damon's feeling of relief slipped away as quickly as it had come. That was a damn good point. Stefan was no more inclined to sleep past noon than they were, and his brother wasn't exactly in the habit of falling asleep on a couch in the library. In fact, Damon was pretty sure it had never happened before. He crossed the room and shook Stefan, hard.

Stefan groaned and squirmed away from his hand. "Damon, leave me alone," he whined even as Damon relaxed. His little brother was okay, and in fact, this was reminding him of waking Stefan up for breakfast when they were kids. A very long time ago.

"Have you been here all night, Stef?" Damon asked, the childhood nickname slipping out before he could catch himself.

Only then did Stefan seem to realize where he was. He peered around the room at the shelves lined with books, the leather furniture, and Damon's second-favorite drink cart. "I don't know. What time is it?" he asked, sounding confused.

"That's the question of the day," Damon replied. He relaxed slightly since Stefan seemed fine. "About 1:30. Apparently it's vampire-sleeping-in day."

"1:30?" Stefan asked, and Damon nodded seriously.

Aedan interrupted their scintillating conversation then. "It was probably a sleep spell," he said thoughtfully.

Damon turned to him. "A what?"

"A sleeping spell. They don't usually work very well on vampires, but I'm pretty sure it can be done. We should call Bonnie."

"But why?"

Aedan's smile was grim. "I'm guessing your dream wasn't metaphorical," he said.

But when Damon called Bonnie, she informed him that she still had to make the salad that she was bringing to Elena's, so she couldn't come to the boarding house before the barbeque. She said that she would look through her grimoires and maybe stop by after the party. And then she hung up on him.

Damon stared at his phone, furious. "A salad?" he said. "How fucking long does it take to make a salad?"

"Maybe if you had been nicer to Bonnie, she'd be more inclined to help," Stefan pointed out.

Damon glared at his little brother. Not very helpful, and Damon hated that superior tone of Stefan's. "I'm nice to the judgy little witch," he said incredulously.

Stefan raised a smug eyebrow. "Really?"

"I'm as nice to her as I am to anybody," Damon argued. With the exception of Aedan, of course, but he was pretty sure nobody wanted him to be nice to Bonnie in _that_ way.

"You use her for her magic, Damon," Stefan informed him.

"So? Everybody uses me for snapping necks and killing hybrids," Damon countered. "We all have our skills, and hers happens to be magic."

"Whatever, Damon," Stefan said as he got to his feet. "Have fun at Elena's little party."

That distracted Damon momentarily. "You're not going?" He thought Stefan would have forgiven Elena by now.

Stefan shook his head grimly and left the room before Damon could say anything else.

Damon glanced over at Aedan, who was watching with a look that clearly said that he wasn't getting in the middle of an argument between the two brothers. "Anything to add?" Damon snapped before he could stop himself.

"Shower?" Aedan asked, and Damon laughed in spite of himself.

•••••

"I can't believe Bonnie thought it was more important to finish a salad for tonight than to investigate that sleep spell," Damon complained again as he turned onto Elena's street. "I mean, it's a salad for god's sake."

Aedan just shrugged, not saying anything. Damon had been ranting about this on and off all afternoon, and there really wasn't anything more to say. He agreed with Damon that it would be nice if Bonnie would show a little more urgency, and he had said so earlier. Still, there wasn't anything they could do about it. Bonnie didn't seem like the type who would respond particularly well to threats, especially Aedan knew that they would probably be idle threats. He didn't think either he or Damon had the stomach to follow through on threatening a teenage witch who had helped them out before.

Damon pulled his Camaro up behind a car parked in front of what Aedan could only assume to be Elena's house. "Do you recognize that car?" he asked Aedan, sounding worried. Before Aedan could point out that the only cars he knew in town were the one they were in and Stefan's rather unmistakable red Porsche, Damon continued. "I don't think. . . " He stopped in mid-sentence and looked toward the house. "Something's wrong," he said. He was out of the car and racing up the front walk a step ahead of Aedan.

Damon tore open the Gilbert's front door and sped through, while Aedan stopped abruptly, all too aware that he had never been invited in. Inside he saw a strange man holding Elena immobile and a strange woman standing there. Alaric and an attractive young man that Aedan didn't recognize – presumably Elena's brother, Jeremy – were unconscious on the floor. The woman whirled as Damon entered. She narrowed her eyes, and Damon stopped in his tracks, screaming and grabbing his head.

A witch, Aedan realized, and probably a powerful one. He watched helplessly from the doorway as Damon crashed to his knees and groaned in pain. Aedan reluctantly tore his gaze from Damon's crumpled figure to where Elena was struggling fruitlessly against the man holding her. Her gaze was locked on Damon. "Elena," Aedan roared to get her attention. "Invite me in!"

Elena turned toward the door then, brown eyes wide. She opened her mouth to speak, but the man holding her was faster. He clamped a hand over her mouth before she could get a word out.

The witch's eyes flitted between Damon on the ground and Aedan stuck behind the invisible barrier that kept him out of the house. She smiled and made a twisting gesture with her hand. Damon convulsed once on the floor and then went still and silent. He was unconscious, and Aedan's heart clenched at the realization that Damon was utterly helpless and Aedan couldn't reach him. All the witch had to do was drive a stake into Damon's heart and Aedan would lose him forever.

The witch turned her full attention to Aedan then with a sinister smile. He felt his brain explode with pain as she hit him with the aneurysm spell that had taken Damon down. The witch was as powerful as he had expected, but Aedan hadn't been around for five hundred years without learning more than a few tricks of his own. He pushed the magic out of his brain and shook his head to clear it as he straightened up. "Sorry, but your little tricks won't work on me," he said. He forced himself not to look at Damon's unconscious form and kept his voice as neutral as possible. He couldn't let the witch know just how scared he was.

The witch looked worried now, and Aedan continued with false confidence. "It looks like we're at an impasse," he said coolly. "I can't get in, but I'm not going to let you leave either." He tilted his head and gave his best predator's smile. "I suggest you release Miss Gilbert, and I might let you walk out of here alive."

The witch returned his smile with one of her own. "I think you care about these people here," she said. "And you can't help them from out there." She nudged Damon's unconscious body with her foot. "You arrived with this vampire, didn't you? You're going to let us leave or I set him on fire. Vampires are quite flammable, after all."

Aedan hesitated, trying to judge if she was bluffing. Elena was looking back and forth between them with terrified eyes that weren't exactly helping the situation. She could at least look like she thought Aedan had a plan. Of course, she was being held captive – and he didn't.

The witch waited for a couple of breaths, staring unblinking at Aedan. "Okay then," she said. She made another gesture, and fire flared up from Damon's arm.

"Okay," Aedan conceded frantically. He raised his hands in surrender and backed away from the door.

"Very good," the witch said. The flames went out at her command, and Aedan tried to hide his relief. The witch was still eyeing him. "Don't think that you're fast enough to kill me and free the doppelganger," she said warningly. "If you come for me, Derek here will snap the girl's neck. He's a werewolf, so he's not as fast as you vampires, but he's plenty fast enough to end her life and he'll be happy to do so." One glance at the werewolf's smirk had Aedan convinced that was indeed the case. _Fuck_, he thought.

The witch wasn't done. "And if you try to go after him and free her, I'll make sure this house goes up in flames and your friends die. Trust me when I say that I can cast that spell faster than even one of your kind can kill both of us."

Aedan nodded. "I get the message," he said. He stepped further back from the door, keeping his hands raised unthreateningly. In truth, he was tempted to try to kill the witch and free Elena as soon as they came through the door. He didn't think the witch or the werewolf knew just how fast he could move, but he hesitated to gamble with Damon's life. And if he miscalculated and got Elena killed, he wasn't at all sure that Damon would ever forgive him even if his lover made it out alive.

So he just stood there with his hands in the air as the werewolf dragged Elena out the door and the witch followed. Aedan thought that Elena tried to nod at him past the hand still clamped tightly over her mouth as they went by, but it was hard to tell for sure. It went against his every instinct to just stand there watching, but he forced himself to stay still. He watched from the porch as the werewolf dragged Elena into the back seat of the car, careful to keep his hand locked over her mouth. The witch circled around to the driver's door and then glanced up at Aedan. "So you don't follow us," she said and made a gesture with her hand.

Aedan jumped back instinctively as the wall beside him went up in flames.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: **_Since I left the last chapter with a cliffhanger, here is a quick update (don't expect them to be this quick most of the time, I'm afraid). Thanks as always to everyone reading this story and especially those of you who take the time to review. I really appreciate all feedback!  
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**Chapter 21**

Aedan flashed across the porch to the open doorway, ignoring the heat of the air and the crackle of the flames as they crawled rapidly up the front of the house. Looking inside, he saw that only the front wall was burning so far, but it wouldn't take long for the flames to begin to spread across the wood floors. Toward where Damon lay, horribly still.

Aedan pressed uselessly against the barrier that kept him out. He could tear down the house, but it still wouldn't help him get inside as long as the human occupants lived. Maybe he should have let Elena die after all, but it was too late now to change his actions. "Damon," he shouted into the house. "Damon, you need to wake up now!" The black-clad figure sprawled on the floor didn't so much as twitch. With difficulty, Aedan tore his eyes from Damon's body and let them roam over the other two unconscious forms, but neither Alaric nor Jeremy had moved a muscle in reaction to the fire or his shouting. All three of them were out cold.

Desperate, Aedan glanced around the porch and the yard for anything that might help, but there was no time to fashion some sort of tool to reach into the house and Damon was too far away, anyway. Apparently, Elena lived among the most oblivious humans ever because he didn't hear any screams, sirens, or other indications that anyone in the neighborhood had noticed the fire. He wouldn't complain about the help of a human right now, even given the difficulty of explaining why he wasn't rescuing the victims inside himself. Reverting to the Gaelic dialect of his human days, Aedan let out a string of curses no one alive could fully understand. He slammed his fist against the magical barrier one more time, then tore a piece from the doorframe in frustration, heedless of the heat of the fire that blistered his hand. Damon had to wake up. He was too strong – and too beautiful – to die on a funeral pyre set by a random witch because Aedan couldn't get in the house. Because Damon had jumped into a fight to save the human girl that he inexplicably cared about so much.

"Damon, I need you to wake up," Aedan pleaded in English. The flames had spread to the couch, only a few feet from where his boyfriend lay, but Damon didn't stir. "Damon! Please. . . ." Damon couldn't die now when Aedan had only just found him. Except Aedan had seen too much to believe that the fates couldn't be that cruel. He closed his eyes for a moment in despair. Despite all his power as a vampire and everything he had learned in half a millenium, he was helpless. And it was his very vampire nature that prevented him from getting to Damon. The crackle of the flames seemed loud in his ears, and heat battered his skin as he stood in the doorway. "Damon!" he shouted again, frantic.

Then Aedan heard a car pull up to the curb behind him and felt the gust of wind that signaled the arrival of another vampire. He turned to see Caroline and felt a surge of hope. "You've got to get him out," he said without preamble, gesturing into the house at Damon's body. Nothing mattered except that they get Damon out before the flames reached him. "I can't get in."

"What happened here?" the blond vampire asked. She looked wide-eyed and scared, but she had the sense not to wait for an explanation before rushing into the house. To Aedan's disgust, she left Damon lying there and grabbed Jeremy, but at least she moved quickly to dump the boy's unconscious body on the lawn. Speeding back into the house, she moved to Alaric, hoisting the tall man up with an ease that would have shocked anyone who didn't know about the strength of vampires. Aedan could only stand there seething in frustration and watching the spread of the flames. Damon's pant leg caught fire just as Caroline reappeared at his side in the doorway. She grabbed his arm. "Where's Elena?" she asked, blue eyes wide and urgent.

"Not in the house," Aedan snapped. His eyes flashed dangerously. "Get Damon."

Caroline finally nodded and sped back in the house to grab the other vampire. Aedan finally abandoned his post by the door as she deposited Damon's body safely on the lawn. The speed of the rescue had put out the fire on his leg, and the whole thing had taken less than a minute. Bonnie was kneeling beside Jeremy. "What happened here?" the witch asked with a touch of panic in her voice. "Where's Elena?"

Aedan knelt by Damon, checking carefully for any more burns. His boyfriend's sleeve was burned away, but the skin on his arm finished healing as Aedan watched. Damon was breathing normally but was still unconscious, and Aedan stroked his fingers lightly over his slack face. He wouldn't relax until those ice blue eyes were open and glaring at him. "A witch took Elena," he finally explained. "Before she lit the house on fire."

"Why didn't you stop her?" Caroline asked.

"I couldn't get in," Aedan explained, trying to tamp down his annoyance at having to state the obvious. He looked up at the two girls. "And she threatened to light Damon on fire if I didn't let her leave."

Bonnie's gaze fell on Damon's singed jeans and missing sleeve. "Guess she got the best of you," she muttered.

"Sorry I trusted the word of one of your kind," Aedan sniped back. He was in no mood to take shit from a teenage witch.

Bonnie must have realized that, because she backed down. "I'm going to put this fire out," she said as she stood up. Aedan watched her close her eyes in concentration and raise a hand. A moment later, she frowned. "It's fighting me," she muttered.

"She was a powerful witch," Aedan offered. He wasn't sure if Bonnie would be able to extinguish the other witch's blaze. It looked to him as though the flames had barely receded. Bonnie did have power, but she was very young and inexperienced, no match for the witch who had taken Elena. It made Aedan wish that he had kept up his contacts among the magical community, but he had let those connections lapse when he had gone deeper underground to avoid Klaus.

"Please tell me you have some clue that will help us find Elena," Caroline asked. She had checked Alaric's pulse, and Aedan thought he saw sympathy in her eyes as she looked at him kneeling by Damon.

Aedan shrugged. "I can tell you the license plate of the car," he said. At the blond vampire's look of surprise, he added drily, "I do watch television."

"Ok. Good," Caroline said. "I'll call my mom. . . ." At Aedan's doubtful look, she explained. "She's the sheriff. They should be able to, like, track the car on traffic cameras or something, right?"

•••••

Damon blinked and groaned. His head was throbbing, and his limbs didn't seem to want to work properly. And why did he smell smoke? Confused, he opened his eyes to see Aedan hovering over him, gray eyes worried. Damon moved his hand and felt grass under it. What the fuck? Then the memory started to come back to him. "Elena," he croaked. "Where's Elena?"

Aedan shook his head, and Damon thought he saw regret on the older vampire's features. "The witch took her," Aedan said quietly.

Damon stared at Aedan. "Why didn't you stop her?"

Aedan's voice was still quiet. "I couldn't get in the house."

"Fuck," Damon muttered. It was true. Aedan had never been invited into the Gilbert house, and Damon had gone charging in like an idiot without even stopping to come up with some kind of a plan. "But how did she get away with Elena?" he asked, wide-eyed with worry. When Aedan didn't answer, he continued, "How could you let them take her? You could have found a way to stop them." He knew what Aedan could do, how powerful he was, after all.

Aedan's face was calm, but Damon could see a storm of emotions flash through those gray eyes. "She threatened to light you up like a bonfire," Aedan finally replied.

Damon was scared and worried, so he lashed out. "And the best thing you could come up with was just to let them leave with Elena? Really? Nice plan." His voice dripped sarcasm.

"Fuck you," Aedan replied as he apparently settled on anger to match Damon's. "I was _trying_ not to get you hostages killed." He gestured at Damon and the other two bodies lying on the grass, which Damon saw belonged to Ric and Jeremy.

"I'm already dead and those two have magic rings," Damon countered.

Aedan glared at him. "And have you tried burning them to a crisp and seeing if they come back?"

"I'll try that next time one of them pisses me off. Elena has to come first. It's the only way we've managed to keep her alive." It had been Damon's mantra for so long that he didn't even think about how Aedan might react to that idea.

"Sorry," Aedan snapped, sounding anything but repentant. "I won't sacrifice you."

Those words and the fury and frustration buried in Aedan's gray eyes stopped Damon's next comeback. Maybe no one else in Mystic Falls cared if Damon lived or died, sometimes not even Damon himself, but Aedan did. He didn't want to fight with Aedan, and he was certain that Aedan had done his best to deal with a bad situation. So Damon blinked, swallowed his words, and tried to sit up. Aedan slipped an arm under him to help, and Damon needed that help more than he wanted to admit. Then he was partially upright and staring at smoke all around Elena's house. "Shit," he cursed, suddenly understanding Aedan's fear. "She really burned the house?"

Caroline, who was also standing there staring at the house, was the one who answered. "Yep, and I barely got you out, Damon. You _so_ owe me."

Damon groaned again at the thought of being in debt to Vampire Barbie. Although he had saved her life a few times, so he figured he was still up in the ledger if they really were keeping track. As he watched, Bonnie turned away from the house. She wiped a streak of blood away from her nose – Damon could smell it, and he kept his sudden hunger under control with a bit of difficulty – and nodded with satisfaction. "Got it," she said. "Flames are out."

"I hope they're in good hands," Damon muttered, thinking of the cost of repairs. Elena probably didn't know anything about homeowner's insurance, and that was a lot of smoke damage, at a minimum. He eyed his own charred pant leg in disgust. "These were designer jeans," he muttered. His shirt was clearly a lost cause, too, with a chunk of the arm burned away. It had been one of his favorite shirts.

"You should think about a wardrobe change, get some old clothes," Aedan said, sounding amused.

"That would require them to survive long enough to become old," Damon replied. "Besides, you like how I look." He waggled his eyebrows, the earlier fight already forgotten.

"Uh, guys," Caroline interjected. "We need to find Elena."

Damon groaned. Another fucking crisis. He struggled to get to his feet even as he tried to think around the pounding in his head. "Right," he said. "Get Jeremy somewhere safe, and Aedan and I will take Alaric back to the boarding house, find out if he knows anything when he wakes up. We can all meet there."

•••••

Damon's head was still throbbing when they got back to his house. He had even let Aedan drive his car so he could close his eyes and wish the pain would go away. "I need to eat," he muttered as Aedan dumped Alaric's still unconscious form on one of the couches.

"The pie is still in the car," Aedan offered.

"Shut up," Damon replied half-heartedly. Aedan knew perfectly well that he meant blood, although in truth he appreciated Aedan's calm. It helped keep Damon from freaking out that Elena had been kidnapped yet again. He had really thought that with Klaus and his hybrids gone, the target would be off Elena's back. Apparently, he had been wrong.

Damon had only taken a step toward the stairs to the basement refrigerator full of blood bags when a female voice stopped him in his tracks. "Damon. It's been a while."

Damon whirled around to face the speaker. It was a tall woman with pale skin and reddish-brown hair. "Sage," he said flatly. "What are you doing here?" That really must have been Sage that he had seen at the Lockwood's the previous night, and he had a bad feeling that he didn't have the time or the energy to deal with this right now.

Sage smiled. "Visiting my favorite student," she said. "You're looking a little disheveled, Damon. Rough day?" Sage didn't miss much, and Damon knew she had taken in the burns on his clothes. Hell, he probably had grass all over him, too, and he really didn't feel like answering that question. When Damon didn't say anything, she shrugged and turned her attention to Aedan. "And Aedan," she greeted him calmly.

Aedan nodded back, just as calm. "Sage." Damon suppressed a groan. Of course these two knew each other. All the old vampires seemed to know each other, although he supposed your paths were bound to cross in five hundred years.

Damon tried to sound as calm as the other two even if calm wasn't really in his nature. "It's kind of a bad time right now, Sage. Can you come back next week?" He tried not to sound too hopeful about the prospect of delaying this encounter.

"Surely you have time to do a favor for an old friend," Sage replied. It wasn't really a question. "I want my Finn back, Damon. I've been waiting nine hundred years, and I'm tired of waiting."

"Your fin?" Damon asked stupidly. He rubbed his temple. He was definitely missing something here, and he wished his head would stop pounding.

"Klaus' brother, Finn," Aedan supplied. "If I'm not mistaken, Sage considers him the love of her life."

Sage shot Aedan a glare, but she nodded before turning back to Damon. "You killed Klaus, and his sister is lying in your basement with a dagger in her back. Klaus always kept his family close, so I think you know where the rest of them are. Where Finn is."

Damon wondered how she knew about Rebekah. "Sorry, Sage, but I have no idea. You can have Rebekah," he offered hopefully.

Sage narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't want that bitch. I want Finn."

"You're sounding a little obsessed here, Sage," Damon began. A second later, he was flying across the room. He hit the wall hard and lay there stunned as an antique mirror crashed to the floor next to him and shattered. Before he could even react, Sage was picking him up by the neck with one hand and pressing him into the wall.

"You _will_ help me, Damon," she said.

Damon started to try to choke out a response, but Aedan was suddenly there, tearing Sage's hand from his neck. Coughing, Damon crumpled to the ground as his legs failed to hold him. He could feel the shards of the broken mirror slicing into his hands, but he barely noticed as he looked up to see Sage slam Aedan into another wall. Damon shouted, "No!" He tried to get to his feet as he saw the flash of wood in Sage's hand, but he was too slow.

Sage drove the stake hard into Aedan's stomach, and Aedan cried out in pain and sank to the ground, his hands clutching at the stake protruding from his gut. Damon's own stomach twisted at the look of pain on Aedan's face.

Sage glanced over at Damon. "What happened to your eternal love for Katherine, Damon?"

Damon had eyes only for Aedan. "I finally figured out who she truly is," he replied absently. If it wasn't for the fact that he could barely stand, he would have already attacked Sage, even with the knowledge that it was futile. She was hundreds of years older and stronger than even Aedan, let alone Damon – which she was demonstrating as she tossed both of them around without even breaking a sweat.

"You think you found love with Aedan here? You think he's perfect?" Sage continued.

Damon froze, terrified of where Sage was going with this.

Sage's eyes gleamed. "Well, he's been in your head, Damon, manipulating you almost since the first time you met him. Did you know that? Did I forget to teach you never to trust another vampire?"

Damon's eyes shifted to where Aedan sat slumped against the wall. A wide circle of blood was soaking his shirt around the stake in his stomach. What was Sage talking about?

"She's lying, Damon," Aedan said. He sounded steady enough for a vampire with a stake in his gut, but Damon knew him well. He saw a flash of guilt in Aedan's gray eyes that didn't match his words.

Damon kept his eyes trained on Aedan. He was sure the hurt he was feeling was visible in his eyes. He couldn't bear the thought that he had been wrong to trust Aedan, that their love had been a lie. "What did you do?" he asked pleadingly. When Aedan didn't answer, Damon turned to Sage suspiciously. "How do you know any of this, anyway?" he asked, trying to conceal the way his heart felt like it was breaking. He tried to hold onto the hope that Sage was, indeed, lying and there was some simple explanation for Aedan's guilty look.

Sage shrugged. "I've been in both your heads," she began.

Damon interrupted her as it all started to make sense. "Last night. That was you."

Sage narrowed her eyes. "My witch said the sleep spell would hold."

"She lied. Never trust a witch, Sage." Damon never could resist pushing his luck, and despair was making him even more reckless than usual.

Sage just shrugged. "I got what I needed. Normally getting into the head of Aedan here would be a challenge, but you relaxed him very nicely for me. I see you haven't forgotten everything I taught you. Although you apparently let any old vampire into _your_ head."

Damon refused to rise to that bait. He cocked his head as another thought occurred to him. "If you've been in my head, then you should know I don't know anything about this Finn person."

Sage shrugged. "You've been dealing with Klaus ever since he showed up in town. You can find Finn."

"Your faith in me is touching, Sage, but I'm afraid it's misplaced."

"Is it?" Sage twisted the stake in Aedan's stomach, drawing another involuntary cry of pain from the other vampire. "You have friends, Damon. Your lover here, if you forgive him for messing with your head. Even a brother. Call me when you find my Finn." And with that not-so-veiled threat she was gone from the room.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **_I know it's been forever since I updated, but work has been super busy and sadly fanfiction does not pay the bills (if only I could write this stuff for a living!). But I promise I haven't given up on this story, so here is the next chapter. (Just to warn you, the next chapter could take a while, too. The rest of the month is looking bad - but maybe the return of the show will inspire me to make time to write.)  
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**Disclaimer: **_I do not own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters from the show. I do own Aedan._

**Chapter 22**

Damon flashed across the room to crouch by Aedan. He picked up a scrap of paper with Sage's phone number on it. It was a cocktail napkin, he noted absently, which just showed that Sage hadn't changed all that much in a hundred years. But Damon almost immediately turned his attention to Aedan, who was still slumped against the wall with a stake in his stomach. Pain-filled gray eyes met his.

Damon stared down at the older vampire and grasped the smooth wood of the stake. "I may be pissed at you right now, but I love you and I'm not going to leave you here staked." It wasn't the most logical sentence he had ever uttered, but logic had kind of gone out the window at this point. Aedan was lying there, bloody and broken, his eyes full of pain and regret. It was all wrong, and Damon was angry and hurt and scared – but he wasn't sure if he was angry at Aedan or Sage or both. He wasn't sure who he _should_ be angry at. He pulled the stake from Aedan's body with one quick jerk, trying to ignore the large stain of blood soaking into his boyfriend's shirt.

Aedan groaned as the stake came loose. "I'm sorry," he said after a second of gasping to catch his breath.

Damon tilted his head. He had to ask, even though he was afraid he didn't want to know. He couldn't imagine what Sage had been referring to, but the guilt he had seen in Aedan's eyes told him that she hadn't been lying. Aedan had manipulated him in some way. "What was Sage talking about?" he asked quietly.

"It was just once, when you came back to my house before trying the spell to kill Klaus," Aedan explained. "I didn't mean to do it. It just happened."

Damon frowned. He remembered that night well, and he was certain that he had wanted to do everything that they had done. "What did you trick me into doing that night?" he asked, puzzled.

The guilt was back in Aedan's gray eyes as they met Damon's. "You were going to leave, and I didn't want you to. I pushed you to fall asleep."

Damon raised an eyebrow. "You made me stay the night?" That was it? That wasn't a big deal at all, and the obvious remorse in Aedan's eyes was rapidly burning away his remaining anger. After a moment, he said, "Not exactly the most nefarious vampire plot I've ever encountered. Sage already has you beat. Hell, _Blondie_ might be able to come up with better than that."

Aedan smiled at that. "I'll try to do better next time," he said with a trace of his usual dry humor. "But still, I'm sorry. It shouldn't have happened."

"Maybe I'm not sorry," Damon countered. He remembered that night and the feeling of waking up in Aedan's arms. He had felt like Aedan _wanted _him that night in the way that Damon had always craved but hadn't quite known was even possible. And if he had left that night, maybe Aedan wouldn't have followed him back to Mystic Falls and Damon would have never seen him again. Most likely they wouldn't even have succeeded in killing Klaus without Aedan's help. "Who knows where we might have ended up if you hadn't done it," he said quietly.

Aedan met his eyes with surprise. He nodded slowly. "So we're okay?" he asked.

Damon nodded. "We're okay." He bent and kissed Aedan lightly but shook his head when the other vampire started to get to his feet. "Wait here. I'll get some blood." He headed for the basement, too tired for vampire speed.

Alone in the basement, Damon paused for a moment at the refrigerator filled with blood bags. He wondered if he should have forgiven Aedan so easily. He wanted desperately to believe that what Aedan had told him was the entire story, the only such incident that Sage had found in her search of their minds. The same instincts that had told him there was a kernel of truth in her accusation screamed to him now that Aedan had told him everything – that Aedan might actually be honest enough to feel guilty about something like that – but Damon also knew how desperately he wanted to hold onto Aedan. Had he talked himself into something he would regret later? Free will mattered, after all, and it sometimes mattered more when you possessed the power to take it from others without any consequences. There was a reason that Damon had started drinking vervain every day, painful as it was, when he had learned that the Originals could compel other vampires. He shuddered at the thought of his will being compromised, and yet he still couldn't be mad at Aedan for what he had done.

He remembered now that he had intended for his visit to Aedan that day to be nothing more than a short, well, booty call. He planned to turn right back around and return to Elena and his suicidal plan to kill Klaus – staying the night had never even occurred to him. So much of Damon's life for one hundred years had been a series of brief sexual encounters, less-than-one-night stands that meant nothing more than physical pleasure and a meal, that spending the night in someone's arms was a strange thing. He imagined that Aedan's life had been similarly lonely for far longer – although Damon seldom asked about Aedan's past for fear of having to reciprocate with details of his own that he preferred to keep buried.

So after long moments frozen, staring at the refrigerator, Damon returned to his original conclusion that what Aedan had done had brought them together, and he wasn't mad about it, even if maybe he should be. When he finally made it back upstairs with a handful of blood bags, Aedan hadn't moved.

Damon passed a blood bag to Aedan before sinking down to sit next to him with his back against the wall and his shoulder just brushing Aedan's. He tore open his own snack and devoured it. He could feel his head clearing, his headache finally dissipating as the blood restored his body. "This has been a no-good, very-bad day," he sighed. "What do we do first?"

Aedan had made equally quick work of his meal. "Go after Elena, I think. Let's make Sage wait."

Damon nodded. "Even though she kicked both our asses?" He didn't like the fact that Sage was so much stronger than Aedan. Damon had gotten used to thinking of Aedan as virtually invincible, and he decided he preferred it that way. It was jarring to realize that Sage had as many years on Aedan as Aedan did on him. How were they going to get rid of her? It was like dealing with another fucking Original. At least they didn't need one of those stupid daggers.

Aedan didn't seem concerned, or he faked it well. "We'll get her next time. Now we know who we're dealing with."

Damon frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Do you think it's a coincidence that Sage and the witch that took Elena showed up at the same time? Sage has a witch working for her, too." He held up a second blood bag for Aedan. His fingers itched to check that the huge hole in the other vampire's body had healed.

Aedan's gray eyes showed a hint of surprise as he looked over at Damon. He took the blood bag with a thoughtful look on his face. "You think Sage's witch might be the one who took Elena?"

Damon shrugged. "I think I don't really believe in coincidences. Not in Mystic Falls." He tore open his own second blood bag and sipped it slowly. He should have taken time to heat this one.

Aedan sounded thoughtful. "The witch had a werewolf with her, though. Would Sage work with a werewolf, and vice versa?" he asked.

Damon frowned again. Sage might not be exactly what you would call a traditionalist, but it did seem unlikely that she would enlist a werewolf in her scheme. "Probably not," he agreed.

"Bonnie should be able to tell from the magical signatures," Aedan said.

Now it was Damon's turn to look over at Aedan in surprise. "You know a lot about magic, for a vampire," he said.

Before Aedan could answer, Damon heard a groan from the couch where they had dumped Alaric. He watched as his friend blinked open his eyes and glanced around the room in confusion. "Did I die again?" Ric sputtered. He managed to sit up.

Damon frowned. He wasn't actually sure, given that he had been unconscious most of the time himself. "Don't think so." He turned to Aedan. "Did he die?"

Aedan shook his head. "Not that I noticed."

"What the fuck happened then?" Ric looked dazed.

Damon was briefly tempted to make him guess. It couldn't take too many tries to get to "Elena was kidnapped," right? But he took pity on his friend. "Just a typical Sunday afternoon. You were knocked out by a pyromaniac witch and a werewolf. There were a couple of fights, plus a fire. Oh, and Elena's been kidnapped." He got to his feet and went to pour his friend a drink. While he was there he poured one for himself and one for Aedan, too. He was pretty sure they could all use a drink at this point. "We were hoping the witch might have said something to you before she took you out," he said hopefully as he handed Ric his drink.

Ric groaned again before accepting the drink with a grimace. He shook his head. "Fuck, I don't remember. We were at the house, and there was a knock on the door. We thought it might be you, and they burst in so fast I barely had time to react. Some hunter I am," he said bitterly. "Jeremy. . . ." He stopped abruptly. "Jeremy – is he okay? Where is he?"

Damon shrugged. He felt a surge of guilt that he hadn't worried about Jeremy since he had dumped the kid on Caroline and Bonnie, followed by annoyance at the guilt. This was one of those moments when he missed the simpler days of not caring about a soul. Except Katherine, of course. Maybe those days hadn't been so great after all. "He's probably opening his eyes about now himself. Should have taken bets on which of you would wake up first." Damon brought out an extra layer of snark to cover the sudden onset of unwanted feelings.

"Dick," Alaric muttered. "I don't remember the witch saying much of anything. Sorry."

Damon cursed. "So we still have no leads." He could feel his artificial calm starting to crack, and he threw down what was left of his bourbon and flashed over to the bar to pour himself another drink.

Aedan got to his feet and crossed the room. His movements were a bit stiff, still lacking his usual easy grace. He put a hand gently on Damon's arm. "Hey," he said softly. "We'll find her."

Damon nodded, trying to keep his doubts hidden. How many times could Elena cheat death after all? Unless of course, the witch was planning something worse than death for her. He didn't trust witches, never had. Before he could come up with an answer for Aedan, he heard a knock at the door, followed by the sound of it opening.

Caroline's voice followed the creak of the old door hinges. "Damon? Stefan? Anybody home?" She turned the corner and stopped at the scene in front of her. Damon almost laughed as Bonnie ran right into the blond vampire. Then he groaned as Jeremy nearly hit them both. Why had they brought Jeremy? That wasn't his plan.

Caroline shot Bonnie a look but otherwise seemed unconcerned by the collision. Her nostrils flared. "What happened here?"

Bonnie was staring at them now, too, her eyes taking in the stain of blood on Aedan's shirt. "Did you two get in a fight?" the witch asked suspiciously.

Damon ignored that. "Sage, a very old and powerful vampire, happened."

Caroline turned to Aedan then. "Older than you?" she asked in a tone that implied that was nearly impossible.

"Yes," Aedan said shortly.

Damon decided that this was not a particularly fruitful line of discussion. "You brought Baby Gilbert?" he asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

Jeremy glared at him. "Elena's my sister, Damon. Besides, you need my blood if you're doing a locator spell."

Damon sighed. For once, the kid had a point. He should have thought of that himself, not that he was about to admit it. "Fine. Since you're here, you can donate some blood to the cause. We're practically the Red Cross around here."

"My mom couldn't track the car," Caroline chimed in. "She said Mystic Falls barely has any cameras. And she doesn't have a nerdy-but-hot computer genius on staff either, if you can believe that."

Aedan cracked a smile at that. "Has T.V. been lying to us?" he asked drily.

To Damon's surprise, Caroline smiled back at his boyfriend. "Apparently so."

Damon stared at them both, thoroughly puzzled by this conversation. Had Aedan somehow bonded with Vampire Barbie while he was unconscious? This day just kept getting weirder. He ran a hand through his hair. He needed to focus, and the current conversation didn't seem to be going anywhere. "Okay," he said. "Bonnie, you do a locator spell, see if you can find Elena."

Aedan chimed in then. "Also, check the magical signatures around the house. We need to know if the witch who cast a sleep spell here last night was the same one who burned down Elena's house."

"Okay," Bonnie said with a slow nod. "I think I can do that." She pulled a grimoire from her bag and dropped it on a table with a thud.

"What are you guys going to do?" Caroline asked.

Damon rolled his eyes. "We're going to get cleaned up," he said.

Just then he heard the front door open again and wondered who it could possibly be. He was pretty sure everyone he knew was already there in the room. Maybe it was Sage back for another round?

But it was Stefan who walked through the door a second later. He stared around the room in confusion. "I though the party was at Elena's?" he asked. Then, suspicious, "Where _is_ Elena?"

Damon heard Caroline mutter, "Uh oh," but no one else said anything. Of course, that meant it fell to him to break the bad news to his brother.

He decided to rip off the band aid. "She's been kidnapped by a witch and a werewolf," he told Stefan.

"What?" Stefan stared at him with wide green eyes. He shook his head in denial. "No, no, no."

_Fuck_, Damon thought. If he had any doubt that Stefan still loved Elena despite his latest bout of martyrdom, Stefan's reaction had just proven the extent of his feelings. "We have a plan, Stefan," Damon said, trying to sound reassuring. "We'll find her in no time, just like we always do." For some reason, Stefan didn't look convinced.

•••••

Upstairs Damon watched as Aedan stripped off his torn and blood-stained shirt. The stake wound was healed now, but his torso was still smeared with blood. Damon was suddenly reminded of the horrible night that Aedan had almost died in his arms from a werewolf bite. Aedan was usually so strong and confident that he seemed invincible, but Damon felt the forcible realization that he wasn't. It would only take a second – one piece of wood in the wrong place – and Aedan could be taken from him.

Aedan turned around then, and he looked puzzled as he caught Damon's eye. Damon wondered what his expression looked like as Aedan closed the short distance between them. "Hey," he said softly as he brought a hand up to brush away Damon's hair from his forehead. "I'm fine."

It was Damon who drew Aedan into a deep kiss, wanting to convey just how important that was to him. When they finally came up for air, he rested his forehead against Aedan's for a long moment.

Aedan finally broke the silence. "You still smell like smoke," he teased lightly.

Damon grinned. "You still smell like blood," he countered.

"So I win," Aedan said with a smile, and Damon had to concede the point even as his cold, dead heart fluttered a little at the barely-banked fire in Aedan's eyes. Aedan's hands moved then to unbutton Damon's shirt and push it back off his shoulders. By the time it hit the floor, he had moved on to unfastening Damon's jeans, and Damon was returning the favor. A moment later they were kissing under the warm stream of water from the shower, letting it wash away all the scents of the day's events.

Unfortunately, Damon couldn't forget that Elena was still in danger and her friends were gathered downstairs. It probably wouldn't take Bonnie long to do the spells they needed, and he didn't want to miss anything. Who knew what sort of rescue plan those idiots would come up with on their own? He and Aedan settled for a quick exchange of hand jobs with the tacit promise of so much more to come when this latest crisis was over.

As they toweled off, Aedan asked, "So does Elena always get kidnapped this often?"

Damon groaned. "Believe it or not, once a week is about par for the course." He was exaggerating a little, but not as much as he wanted to be. "We should put a microchip in her."

Aedan laughed softly. "A witch wouldn't even think to block that," he said.

Damon sobered at that. "You don't think the locator spell is going to work?"

Aedan shook his head. "No," he admitted. "That witch was too smart not to cover her tracks."

Damon had already guessed that, but he cursed under his breath anyway. "Makes me hope that she _is_ Sage's witch. That might give us a lead." He frowned as the thought of Sage distracted him for a moment. "Speaking of Sage, did she really think that little stunt would break us up?"

Aedan turned around to face Damon. He had pulled on a pair of jeans, but he still wasn't wearing a shirt and Damon couldn't help but let his eyes skim over Aedan's torso appreciatively. "It could have, if we didn't talk about it. Or if you couldn't forgive me."

Damon shook his head. "It's not that big a deal," he protested.

"It would be to some people." Aedan stopped, but Damon could see that he wasn't done. He wondered what Aedan was so hesitant to say. Aedan was always careful with his words, but his boyfriend was seldom unsure of himself. So Damon waited, silent for once, and finally Aedan continued quietly. "Maybe you shouldn't trust me as much as you do. I've been using people for centuries . . ."

Damon made a face at that and cut Aedan off. "That's ridiculous. And don't give me some line about how you're an evil vampire. I _invented_ playing the bad vampire card."

Aedan's smile was a real one at that, and Damon could see the laughter in his gray eyes. "Okay," the older vampire conceded. Damon thought he had won, but the humor disappeared from Aedan's expression as quickly as it had come. "You can trust me now," he said seriously. "But you shouldn't have that night. You barely knew me. You should have been protecting yourself."

Damon groaned. "That was after sex. It doesn't count." He did his eye thing, trying to distract Aedan. He wanted this conversation over. "Besides, maybe I sensed something about you," he added teasingly. He had meant those words to be a joke, but he suddenly wondered if there wasn't more truth to them than he had intended. Damon had always tried to trust his intuition, and he had felt himself drawn to Aedan even then. He had been willing to make himself vulnerable, which really wasn't like him.

"Damon. . . ."

Damon rolled his eyes. "I promise that I don't go around letting any old vampire into my head, despite what Sage said. She lies, remember?" Then he couldn't resist adding, "Any more than you go around jumping any sexy vampire you see. You and I are a special case."

Aedan shook his head slightly. "You win," he said with a slight smile. He crossed the few feet between them and kissed Damon. "I love you," he said when they finally pulled away.

Damon smirked. "I know. It's because I'm so brilliant." He glanced at his huge, comfortable bed involuntarily. God, he wished they had time for sex. Or even sleep, for that matter. Or better yet, sex followed by sleep. Blood and a shower had restored most of his strength for now, but Damon could feel the exhaustion lingering in his body from everything it had already been through that day. Vampires healed, yes, but it took energy to do so. But he couldn't rest yet. He had another rescue to plan.

This time it was Aedan's turn to roll his eyes. "Modest, too," he commented drily as they left the room.

**A/N:** _This chapter references events back in chapter 4. In case you're curious, I always planned to possibly return to Aedan messing with Damon's mind in that chapter, but no one ever commented on it in a review so maybe Aedan was the only one who really noticed ;) Hope the somewhat-low-key nature of the reveal wasn't too much of a letdown for anyone._


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: **_Look, it's a minor miracle. An update! I'm so sorry that this chapter has taken me forever. I haven't had much time for writing, and I kept getting stuck at various points on this one (as you'll see, quite a bit happens...) but it's finally done and I'm posting it before I obsess and make more changes. The good news is I've written most of the next few chapters while struggling with this one, so hopefully I can update regularly for at least a little while.  
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_For those who have (understandably) forgotten recent events of this story, Elena has been kidnapped by a witch (who nearly set Damon on fire) and a werewolf. Damon and Aedan are also dealing with Sage, who is demanding Damon's help in finding Finn (after trying to drive a wedge between our favorite couple), and they suspect that she may have the same witch working for her._

**Chapter 23**

When Damon and Aedan came back downstairs, Bonnie informed them that their hunches had been right – the spells had all been cast by the same witch and the locator spell had failed. Three times. The witch was blocking it, just as they had suspected. As far as Damon could figure, that left them with one lead. "I'm calling Sage," he said.

Stefan objected first. "Damon, are you sure that's a good idea? We can't exactly trust her."

Truthfully, Damon wasn't sure it was a good idea, but he didn't like to undermine his own plan. "Got a better plan?" Naturally, Stefan shook his head.

To Damon's surprise, Aedan objected next. "I'm not sure we need Sage. I can handle the witch."

Bonnie snorted. "Like you handled her at the house?" Apparently this was some kind of witch solidarity, Damon thought in disgust.

Aedan glared at the petite witch. "Different situation. She had hostages then."

Bonnie didn't look convinced. "And she has a hostage now – Elena. Or did you forget about her?"

Damon interrupted before Aedan could answer. Whose side was Bonnie on, anyway? "Obviously no one is forgetting about Elena. The real problem is that we have no idea where the witch is holding her," he pointed out. "But since she's Sage's witch, Sage can probably point us in the right direction. At a minimum. And dilly-dallying around here isn't doing Elena any good."

"Sage is a wildcard at best," Stefan countered again.

"The best play is usually a wildcard," Damon replied. "And she's the only lead we've got," he repeated. He found the cocktail napkin with Sage's number on a table, pulled his phone from his pocket, and dialed the number before anyone else could intervene. It probably wasn't ideal to do this in front of three other vampires who would hear every word, but he couldn't exactly ask Stefan and Blondie to leave the house. Like it or not, he was stuck with the whole bunch of them for the moment.

Sage answered immediately. _"That was fast, Damon. Tell me you have news on Finn."_

Damon saw Stefan react at the sound of the name, and he filed that little tidbit away to consider later. For now, he cut right to the chase. The first step was to feel out Sage's role in this. "What do you want with Elena Gilbert, Sage?"

Sage sounded puzzled. _"Nothing. I told you what I want – Finn."_

"Well, why did you tell your witch to kidnap Elena, then?

He could hear Sage's puzzlement in her voice. _"I didn't."_

Damon nodded. He didn't trust Sage, but he didn't see what she would gain by lying to him right now and her answer matched his and Aedan's speculation that the witch had gone rogue. "Well, she did exactly that. Do you know where your witch is, Sage?"

"_What makes you think it was my witch? Sounds like you've picked up a few enemies over the years, Damon."_

Damon wasn't falling for that. "Nope, it was your witch. Magical signatures or some such thing," he informed her. "It sounds like somebody's losing control of her underlings. Bad management skills?"

"_Fuck you, Damon. Oh right, did that."_

Damon winced a little at that. A quick glance around the room showed a wide-eyed Caroline and Jeremy, a disgusted Bonnie, and Stefan looking like he wanted to roll his eyes. At least Aedan looked amused, and he was the one who really mattered, after all. "Tell me where to find the witch, Sage, or our deal to help you find Finn is off."

"_You're calling it a 'deal' now, Damon? I wasn't aware you had a choice in the matter."_

"No witch, no dead boyfriend," Damon repeated.

"_Fine. Meet me at the Mystic Grill, and I'll take you to my witch, see if she's holding your precious Elena Gilbert."_

"I'll be there." Damon hung up the phone. The next step was to cull the herd. There was no way he was leading a posse of high school kids to deal with Sage and a powerful witch. Too bad it was going to be a tricky thing to get them out of his hair. "Okay. Stefan, Aedan and I will go to meet Sage. The rest of you can stay here, hold down the fort. Or go home for all I care."

Bonnie immediately shook her head. "I'm coming with you," she declared.

Damon shook his head. "No, no, no," he said. Most of the winning scenarios that he could think of for their side involved the death of a witch, and he didn't think Bonnie would be okay with that. "You're staying here."

To Damon's surprise, Stefan chimed in on his side. "Bonnie, none of us can protect you from Sage."

"I can protect myself," Bonnie said stubbornly.

That was all the warning Damon had before he grabbed his head as it exploded in pain. "Fuck," he groaned. Luckily, Bonnie released him immediately. Damon was really, really sick of aneurysms. His brain still ached from what the other witch had done to him that afternoon.

"See," Bonnie said stubbornly.

Before Damon could complain, Aedan spoke. "Try it on me," he said calmly. Damon saw Bonnie turn to Aedan and narrow her eyes, but Aedan hardly flinched.

Bonnie stared at him. "You're immune. Like Katherine was."

Aedan nodded. "I taught Katherine that trick," he began.

Damon interrupted him. "Wait a minute. _You_ taught Katherine," he said incredulously. "I thought you didn't even like her."

Aedan shrugged. "Call it a moment of weakness. And anti-Klaus solidarity." He turned back to Bonnie. "You can't protect yourself against me, and Sage is four hundred years older and stronger than I am. Damon's right. You need to stay here."

"Can you teach me?" Damon asked, distracted by the prospect of being able to avoid any more stupid aneurysms.

Aedan turned to him. "Yes," he said. "But it's not something you can learn instantly. It takes practice."

"How long did it take Katherine?"

"Almost a full day," Aedan said.

"Oh," Damon sighed, disappointed. It would have been such a nice trick to have at his disposal before facing that witch again. He was embarrassed by how easily she had taken him out that afternoon. He shrugged. "Guess we'll have to rescue Elena first, then." Before anyone could waste any more time arguing, Damon moved. He grabbed Bonnie and headed for the basement at full speed. He had managed to surprise the witch, and vampires were fast, after all. Damon had tossed her in the cell, slammed the door, and fled back up the stairs before Bonnie could hit him with her spell again. He was betting that she couldn't cast that spell without a visual target, and it seemed like he was right because he made it back to the living room without his head exploding.

Upstairs, Damon smirked, pleased with himself, and looked around the room. "Anyone else object to my plan?"

Caroline planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Did you just lock Bonnie in the cell downstairs?"

Damon wasn't exactly concerned. It was like being barked at by a poodle. "Yep," he said casually.

Caroline tried to intensify her glare. "You do realize I'm going to go let her out now."

Damon shrugged. "You do that. Then keep her here."

"Damon . . . ," the blond vampire began.

"Caroline," Damon interrupted seriously. "The best case scenario here ends up with a dead witch. Do you really think Bonnie wants to be part of that?"

This time Stefan glared at him. "No one is going to die," he corrected. "I'm sure we can negotiate, maybe explain to the witch that now that Klaus is dead, Elena's status as the doppelganger no longer matters…"

Damon rolled his eyes. Stefan and his obsession with negotiation. It would be funny even if Stefan wasn't the world's worst negotiator. But it would be funnier if Elena's life wasn't at stake. "That witch wanted Elena badly enough to burn down her house with three people in it," he pointed out. "I don't think she's just going to hand her over because we ask nicely." He glanced at Stefan and Aedan. He had apparently managed to silence Caroline, which ought to earn him some kind of award. "Shall we go? Before I have to lock up anyone else."

Aedan looked amused, but he nodded.

Damon drove since his car was still out front, and they were well away from the house when Aedan spoke. "Did it occur to you that we'll need the help of a witch if you want to learn to block the aneurysm spell?"

Damon looked over at him. _Shit_, he thought. He really should have thought of that. Or he should learn to think before he acted, period. He glared half-heartedly at Aedan, aware that any repercussions from his treatment of Sabrina weren't the other vampire's fault. He couldn't stop himself from sounding annoyed anyway. "Why didn't you stop me? Or at least say something?" he asked.

Aedan shrugged. "You surprised me. And there wasn't exactly a lot of time. Impressive speed, by the way."

Damon groaned. He had so wanted to learn that trick. "She probably wouldn't have helped anyway. She doesn't much like me."

Aedan grinned at that. "I've noticed. I can't imagine why not."

"Fuck you," Damon replied calmly as he pulled up to the Grill. Surely something had to go right today?

•••••

Damon saw some emotion flash in Sage's eyes at the sight of Aedan and Stefan beside him as they approached her table at the Grill, but he couldn't pin down exactly what emotion it was.

"So you didn't throw Aedan out on his admittedly fine ass for what he did to you?" Sage asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm disappointed in you, Damon."

Damon shook his head. "That was a pretty flimsy attempt to drive a wedge between us, Sage. Was that really the best you could do?"

Sage just shrugged. "It had to have enough truth for Aedan's reaction to sell it, and you two are still in the saccharine-sweet honeymoon phase. So yes, that was the best I could do."

"Why bother then?" Damon asked, genuinely curious.

Sage gave him a little smile. "Now, Damon, you don't really expect me to give away _all_ my secrets. I seem to remember I already taught you quite a few of them." She turned her focus to Aedan then. "Is he still insatiable?" she asked with a little nod of her head at Damon. "And kinky as ever?"

"He is," Aedan replied calmly.

Damon just groaned. Unfortunately, he could only imagine where Sage might take this conversation. And Aedan was perfectly capable of going there with her, although he didn't think his boyfriend would let things get too off target right now. "Stefan is only seventeen," he deflected just in case. "He's too young for this conversation."

"I made him fun, you know," Sage continued as though Damon hadn't spoken. "He was a stick-in-the-mud vampire before he met me."

To Damon's surprise, it was Stefan who jumped in. "As scintillating as this is, we're here to find Elena," his brother said grimly.

"So you're Stefan?" Sage tilted her head. "I remember you from 1912, and Damon might have mentioned you once or twice, but I don't believe we've officially met. At least not when you were awake."

"I know who you are," Stefan said flatly.

Sage rolled her eyes. "And I can see the stick-in-the-mud-ness runs in the family." She stood up. "Fine, let's go pay a visit to my witch."

•••••

Sage led the three younger vampires through the woods toward an isolated house. The house looked to be a small one, and the yard out in front was hardly carefully groomed, with a patch of weedy lawn and some overgrown shrubs. The trees came up conveniently close to the house. They paused a short distance away, careful to remain concealed, and Damon heard a man's voice, low but still audible to vampire ears, coming from inside. "We should be long gone by now," the man said angrily.

Damon saw Aedan mouth "werewolf." He nodded. Good to know. They had already ambushed two werewolves standing guard, both of whom were now unconscious and tied to trees with ropes soaked in wolfsbane. Damon would have just snapped their necks, and he suspected that Aedan and Sage would have had no objection to his approach, but Stefan had insisted that they keep the killing to a minimum and Damon had reluctantly agreed. He wasn't exactly clear why Stefan was on good behavior – it wasn't like his brother didn't have quite the body count, after all – but it wasn't worth arguing over, especially in front of Sage.

A woman's voice came next. "I told you. Sage will be suspicious if I just disappear. We just have to lay low for a day or so until she finishes her business here." Damon assumed this had to be the witch, and it sounded like Sage had been telling the truth that they weren't acting entirely under her orders. One glance at the furious look on Sage's face seemed to confirm that theory.

"You and your vampire mistress," the werewolf said scornfully. "What if that vamp from the house comes after us? He's probably looking for the doppelganger and he resisted your spell."

"He was old," the witch explained. "But he won't find us here. I've made sure of that." Damon smirked at that, and he saw an answering smirk on Aedan's face. They had found her all right.

"You also said we would only have to deal with the Salvatore brothers," the man complained again.

"Sometimes you have to adapt. We handled it fine." Damon imagined the witch shrugging. Little did she know that there were four vampires lurking outside. "Don't worry. The plan is solid," she continued. "And soon none of us will have to worry about being pushed around by vampires any more."

Damon heard the werewolf snort. "You're overconfident," he said.

"And you're a pessimist. I can do this, Derek," the witch countered. "The girl's blood is the last ingredient, and the other witch explained everything."

_It's always Elena's blood_, Damon thought in disgust. _It's past time to get her out of there._ He extended his hearing further and caught a third heartbeat. Two voices, three heartbeats. That was a good sign as far as Elena being inside. Not to mention ridiculously good odds for the Vampire Rescue Squad.

Derek's voice came again, heavy with skepticism. "The dead witch?" he asked.

Before Damon could even begin to sort out what that meant, Sage turned to look at them all. Her eyes gleamed with rage. "Wait," she mouthed, and Damon nodded, forgetting about the conversation they had overheard as the prospect of rescuing

Elena finally arrived. The plan was for Sage to go up to the house alone, first, just in case the werewolf could sense a vampire approaching. No need to spook him before they were ready. Once she was in, the others would follow immediately. Sage had assured them that the witch hadn't been there long enough to establish ownership rights over the house, so they shouldn't have any problem crossing the threshold.

So Damon watched from behind a tree, trying to rein in his impatience, as Sage approached the house and knocked. The witch opened the door, and Damon smirked at her look of consternation. "Sage," she said. "This is a surprise."

"You should never be surprised by what I do," Sage replied. "Or what I know." She stepped forward, ignoring the way the witch kept her body blocking the doorway. "Well, are you going to let me in?"

"I'm kind of in the middle of something," the witch said.

Sage's voice dripped with ice. "Have you forgotten that you work for me? Or why?"

"Of course not." The witch stepped back reluctantly. "It's just . . . there's a girl . . ."

"Tied up in the corner," Sage finished as she stepped into the house and presumably caught sight of Elena. "Kinky." Damon couldn't see her face, but he could picture the smirk.

More importantly, that was the proof they needed that Elena was there. He moved out from his tree and toward the house at the same time as Stefan, with Aedan right behind. The three of them burst into the house a fraction of a second later. They had hoped to be too fast for anyone inside to react, and they had clearly surprised the witch. The werewolf was faster, however, and he had grabbed Elena by the time the three vampires were through the door and inside.

Damon froze at the sight. Derek the werewolf wasn't as stupid as he looked. He was holding Elena in front of him like a shield, which meant they were at just the stalemate Damon had wanted to avoid. He shot Sage a glare, silently asking why she hadn't prevented the werewolf from getting to Elena. Sage just raised an eyebrow at him in reply, leaving Damon to wonder if she was being deliberately obtuse. More likely they were back to the problem that Sage didn't particularly care about Elena's well being.

Stefan broke the silence. "We don't want any trouble," he said, and Damon stifled a snort of derision. No one was buying that line. "Just let her go, and no one needs to get hurt," Stefan continued.

Meanwhile, Elena's big brown eyes stared out at Damon, terrified, and she tried to say something that was muffled by the gag in her mouth.

The werewolf, Derek, could and did speak. "Don't come any closer," he warned the four vampires. "Come at me and the girl dies."

Damon held out his hands in the universal symbol for calm even as Stefan continued. "We're not after you," Stefan said. "Just let her go, and you can walk out of here. We haven't hurt your friends."

_Too much_, Damon added to himself, thinking that wolfsbane-soaked ropes probably felt a lot like vervain-soaked ropes did to a vampire.

Derek shook his head. "And why would I believe a vampire?" he said. He began to edge toward the door, hostage in tow. Aedan stepped back away from the door, and his hand on Damon's arm drew Damon back with him. Stefan, on the other hand, took a step forward, and Damon wondered how long his brother's façade of peaceful negotiation would hold. Stefan had plenty of violence in him, possibly more than any of them, and nothing drove his brother to the brink like Elena. "I told you to stay where you are," the werewolf warned. Damon could hear the fear in the man's voice. He was right to be afraid, of course, with four angry vampires in the room, but he still had Elena as a shield and he was inching closer and closer to the door.

As Damon stood frozen, Stefan took another step forward, hands still out. "We can . . ." he started.

Damon heard the witch mumble something in a low voice as Stefan spoke, and then Sage's voice from Damon's left cut them both off. "Now, now – no spells," she said. Damon heard the snap of bone and turned automatically. The witch was leaning back against the wall, groaning and cradling her wrist as Sage looked pleased with herself. Aedan rolled his eyes.

The werewolf took advantage of the distraction that Sage and the witch had provided. He flung Elena hard into the wall and sped out the door. Damon turned back as he glimpsed the movement in his peripheral vision, but his momentary distraction had been just enough. Elena's body struck the wall just as Damon's eyes found her, too late for even vampire reflexes. With her hands bound, she had no chance to catch herself, and her head hit the wall with an audible crack.

"Fuck," Damon cursed, angry at himself for his failure to anticipate the werewolf's actions. He had been caught flat-footed. If he hadn't gotten distracted, if he had been ready to react, he could have caught Elena before she hit the wall. Any of them could, but none of them had moved. And now Elena lay still, crumpled against the wall. He smelled the scent of her blood, familiar and tempting even now when he had let her go and chosen a different love than his mostly-unrequited pining for her.

He watched as Stefan closed the distance to her slight form and shook her shoulder gently. "Elena," his brother pleaded. "Are you okay?" Stefan's fingers shook slightly as he untied the gag and tossed it away.

There was no answer, and Damon knew that Stefan's question was more wishful thinking than anything else. Elena was clearly unconscious. He jolted himself back into action. "She hit her head, Stefan," he said. "Give her some blood."

Stefan shook his head, stubborn as always. It was a family trait. "She'll be fine."

"She hit her head," Damon repeated. "Give her some blood or I will." He wasn't taking any chances with Elena's safety, not in a volatile situation like this one. Damon was all too aware of the witch and Sage watching, two people he didn't exactly trust - and both of them held a lot more power than Damon was comfortable with. He started as he realized that Aedan was no longer in the room. He hadn't even realized his boyfriend had left, but a second later he understood why as Aedan shoved the door open and dropped the body of the werewolf practically at Damon's feet. Derek was dead.

Damon met Aedan's eyes, and the older vampire shrugged. "I didn't see any point in letting him get away," he said calmly.

Damon raised an eyebrow in silent question. _Are you okay? _A single werewolf only really posed a threat during the full moon, but Derek might have had other friends than those they had already subdued. Of course, Aedan could probably take on a whole pack and not break a sweat.

Aedan gave a slight nod in reply. _Fine. _

Damon relaxed slightly, reassured. He turned his attention back to where Stefan still crouched on the floor beside Elena. His brother seemed to be handling his bloodlust well, although it was probably a good thing that Aedan had snapped the werewolf's neck rather than using a messier approach. Stefan looked up at them, his brow furrowed with worry. "She's not awake yet," he said.

Damon could hear that Elena's heartbeat was steady, if slower than usual, but humans were disturbingly fragile. "Vampire blood will perk her right up," he pointed out.

Stefan's worried look turned to disgust. "How can you be flippant about this?" he asked.

Damon closed his eyes briefly, annoyed that Stefan didn't understand. It wasn't that he didn't care. If anything, he cared too much – he just didn't want anyone to know it. And besides, what harm was there in keeping a sense of humor? Stefan was too serious for his own good. "Just give her some blood," he sighed. "Head injuries are dicey. You know that."

Stefan hesitated a moment longer, glancing around the room. He finally seemed to get Damon's point that they were in enemy territory – or at least that was Damon's interpretation – and Damon watched as his brother bit into his wrist and held it to Elena's mouth. "Elena, drink," Stefan said. He let a few drops of blood dribble into her mouth, and Damon relaxed slightly. Elena was going to be okay.

Sure enough, a moment later, she opened her big brown eyes. "Stefan?" she murmured.

"I'm right here, Elena. You're going to be fine." Stefan stroked his fingers lightly along Elena's temple.

"You came for me," Elena murmured. "You found me."

"Of course I did," Stefan replied.

Damon snorted at his brother taking all the credit, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. He had wanted so badly to be the one that got to hold Elena – and before that, Katherine. It was hard to let go of that entirely. He remembered the look Elena had given him when he and Stefan had rescued her from Elijah and Rose, her whispered "thank you" even as Stefan had gotten the hug. He had been so in love with her then, even as he had forced himself to admit that she belonged with Stefan. His fingers twitched, wanting to reach for Aedan's hand as a reminder that he finally had someone who loved him, too. But holding hands wasn't exactly their style, and Sage and an enemy witch were standing right there.

Luckily Sage shattered the moment before Damon could do something irredeemably stupid and sappy. "Touching," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "But let's get on with this." She turned and slammed the witch brutally into the wall, her hand at the woman's throat. "Why don't you tell me exactly what you've been up to?"

"Nothing. I swear." The woman choked out the words.

"Don't lie to me," Sage growled. "Think about your little niece. Maybe she'll be a powerful witch someday – if she gets to grow up, that is."

"It was just a side project. Nothing important," the witch lied.

Damon shook his head. She wasn't much of a liar. No storytelling skills at all.

Sage was clearly equally unimpressed. "A side project involving working with werewolves and kidnapping the doppelganger," she pointed out. Damon winced slightly. He hadn't been one hundred percent certain that Sage knew who Elena was, but he should have known better than to hope that Sage wouldn't know. "You're trying my patience," Sage added. For good measure, she squeezed the witch's neck.

"Please," the witch pleaded.

"What spell were you planning to cast?" Sage pressed.

"You're going to kill me anyway," the witch said. Damon had to agree.

Sage didn't deny it. "Yes," she said calmly. "But if you tell me, I'll spare your family." She gestured at Derek's body with her free hand. "Your wolf buddy is already dead, so there's no one else for you to protect now, is there?"

The witch stared straight ahead defiantly, and Damon thought for a moment that she was going to hold out and remain silent. But then something in her seemed to snap and her demeanor suddenly changed. "You're all abominations, you know," she said. Her voice was suddenly deadly calm, but her eyes were wild. "Monsters. Murderers. Mistakes."

"Tell us something we don't know," Damon muttered under his breath. He really wanted to crack a joke about alliteration, but he couldn't quite find the right one.

"I will end you. All of you," the witch continued. "And if I fail, another witch will step in."

Damon felt a strange tingling sensation. Power gathering. "Uh, Sage," he began warningly. Sage apparently felt it too. She snapped the witch's neck just as the house around them caught on fire.

Damon cursed as he felt Aedan tug on his arm, jerking him toward the door with tremendous force. They were out the door in a fraction of a second, and Damon turned frantically back to the burning house just in time to see Stefan flash through the door with Elena safe in his arms. "Once a pyromaniac witch, always a pyromaniac witch," he muttered as he closed his eyes in relief.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **_Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story, especially the guests whom I can't thank directly. I really appreciate all feedback, and it's incredibly gratifying to know that people are reading and enjoying my story. This chapter has a bit of a twist - hope you like it!  
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**Disclaimer:** _I don't own _The Vampire Diaries_ or any of the characters. I do own Aedan._

**Chapter 24**

In retrospect, Damon realized he should have guessed when Sage edged a half step toward where Elena was sitting on the ground, awake but staring at the burning house with a slightly dazed expression, with Stefan beside her.

"One more small thing to take care of," Sage said casually. "You see, the thing about spells is that what one witch figures out, any witch can cast. I believe you taught Klaus that lesson the hard way." She glanced from Damon to Stefan and Elena before her gaze settled on Aedan. "The other thing that Klaus forgot is that you always tie up the loose ends."

Aedan must have figured it out then, because he was already moving. But Sage was faster. In the split second before Aedan could cross the lawn – and before Damon could react at all – she had kicked Stefan aside and grabbed Elena. Aedan hit her hard a fraction of a second later, but he was too late. Elena's body was already falling to the grass, lifeless, her neck snapped with a single twist.

Damon heard Stefan scream. He saw Sage throw off Aedan and get to her feet, and he still couldn't move.

Finally, Damon managed to stumble across the yard to Elena's body, getting there at the same time as Stefan did. Damon reached out to touch her just as Stefan gathered her limp body into his arms, and Damon pulled his hand back. He listened desperately for any sign of life from her, any breath or beat of her heart. But there was nothing. He heard Stefan's broken whisper, "Elena." He knew that the few drops of blood that Stefan had given Elena wouldn't be enough to heal a broken neck. She was dead.

Damon turned then and launched himself at Sage with a roar of fury. He was barely aware of what he was doing, but Sage dodged effortlessly, sending him flying into a tree with one hand.

"Control yourself, Damon," Sage snapped.

Damon lay there stunned, staring at her, still too furious to think of anything except killing her in retaliation for what she had done to Elena. He struggled to get his feet under him, clumsy in his shock and desperation. Then Aedan was there, and he wrapped his arms around Damon, restraining him. Damon squirmed against Aedan's grip, barely capable of rational thought as fury overwhelmed him. He was determined to kill Sage, but Aedan wouldn't let him go and he wasn't strong enough to break Aedan's hold.

"Damon," Aedan whispered urgently as the younger vampire tried again to pull away. "Not now," he breathed into Damon's ear, so softly that only Damon could hear it. "What's done is done." Damon heard the promise and the logic in Aedan's words. They would get their revenge later, when Sage wasn't expecting it. Right now, getting himself killed by Sage wouldn't do anyone any good. He forced himself to take a deep breath and relaxed a fraction.

"Wise choice, Aedan," Sage said calmly. "Keep him from doing anything stupid." She looked around at all of them. "It's nothing personal," she said. "But I'm going to have Finn back soon, and I'm not going to spend eternity looking over my shoulder for some witch with a grudge against vampires and a pint of doppelganger blood." When none of them said anything, she continued, "You know I'm right, even if none of you could do it." She turned to Aedan. "That was Feliciano Moya's spell that you used on Klaus, am I right?" Aedan nodded, looking wary. He hadn't released Damon, and Damon knew that was just as well. "Klaus wiped out the entire Moya line of witches to eradicate that spell, but you slipped away and you were the one who had it all the time."

Damon felt the tension in Aedan's body's increase at her words until his boyfriend was practically vibrating with fury. Damon suddenly wondered if he was going to have to be the one to try to hold Aedan back if Aedan lost it. He hoped not, because he was pretty sure that if Aedan lost control, he would too. Sage continued speaking, either oblivious to Aedan's emotions or willing to risk riling him up. "If he had found and killed you any time in the last few centuries – tied up that loose end – he'd still be alive and terrorizing all of us. Don't get me wrong – I'm glad he's gone, but I'm not going to make the same mistake of letting a spell and its key ingredient float around for centuries until it comes back to bite me in the ass."

Damon glared at his old mentor. "Elena was not a loose end or an ingredient in some spell," he growled.

Sage shrugged. "Not to you," she said. "Big picture – that's exactly what she was. Humans don't matter, Damon. They're like insects, here and gone in the blink of an eye. Maybe you'll figure that out in another hundred years or so." She tilted her head. "Besides, she had vampire blood in her system, so it's not like she's permanently dead. She'll be one of us soon."

Damon froze at that. It should be a consolation, but he knew that Elena had never wanted to be a vampire and he had fought so hard to keep her alive.

"You'll thank me later," Sage added. "Call me when you find Finn." Then she sped away.

In the stunned silence left in Sage's wake, Damon slumped back in Aedan's arms. He could barely fathom what had just happened. Across the lawn, Stefan looked up from Elena's limp body, looking as stunned as Damon felt. "Damon," he said pleadingly, and suddenly he was seven and Damon was fourteen again.

It broke Damon's heart that there was nothing he could do to fix things for his little brother. He shook his head helplessly as Aedan finally let him go. "Stef," he started helplessly. The words "I'm sorry" stuck in his throat as they always did, and he knew they wouldn't have done any good anyway. It was too late. Elena was dead. Instead he said, "She'll wake up, Stefan."

Stefan just shook his head, looking inconsolable.

•••••

Damon followed silently as Stefan carried Elena's limp body into the house. He heard Aedan shut the door behind them, but Damon could barely put one foot in front of the other as he trailed after Stefan. He wanted to disappear, but instead he stepped into his living room in Stefan's wake and looked up to see four sets of eyes trained on his little brother's burden. They had all waited there, even Alaric. _Great, just great_, Damon thought. It was pretty much impossible for the day to get worse, but it just might be about to.

Caroline got the first words out. "What happened?" she asked, sounding shocked. Then she realized what she wasn't hearing. "Her heart's not beating. Is she . . ."

Damon couldn't bear it. "She's dead," he said bluntly. He felt the hole in his own heart grow bigger at the accusatory looks surrounding him.

"Oh god, Elena," Bonnie gasped. "Did the other witch kill her?" she asked abruptly, her tone suddenly harsh with a promise of retribution.

"No," Damon answered. He didn't hesitate, and his voice was matter-of-fact. "Sage killed her." He had made it to his drink cart now, and he poured himself a large glass of bourbon.

"But why?" Caroline asked plaintively. "I thought Sage was helping us. You called her."

"I called her," Damon admitted. He hated himself for that decision, and he closed his eyes as he downed what he expected to be the first of many drinks.

Stefan shot Damon a look. "Elena died with vampire blood in her system," he said quietly. "When she wakes up, she'll be in transition."

Damon didn't have to look up from his drink to picture the stunned looks at that announcement. Finally, Caroline spoke. "Well, that's a good thing," the blonde said brightly. "Right? I mean, she's not _dead_ dead."

"How did she have vampire blood in her system?" Bonnie asked. Her voice was low and dangerous.

Stefan's reply was quiet. "The werewolf threw her aside, and she hit her head. We gave her vampire blood to heal her. Then Sage killed her." His voice trailed off as he gently settled his burden on one of the couches.

"I don't understand," Jeremy said. "Why?" He sounded stunned.

It was Aedan who spoke. "The witch was planning to use Elena's blood in a spell against all vampires. Sage was worried that another witch would discover the same spell."

Bonnie apparently missed the point of Aedan's explanation. "I should have been there," the witch said quietly. "I could have stopped her." She turned to Damon. "This is all your fault. You stopped me from coming."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Please," he said scornfully. If he let anger dominate his emotions, maybe it would block out some of the grief he was feeling. "_Aedan_ wasn't fast enough to stop her. What makes you think you would have even seen it happen?" He poured himself another drink. "If you'd been there, you'd just be dead, too," he muttered. He was certain about that, at least. Sage would never have let another witch walk out of that room alive, not after hearing even a mention of a spell to kill all vampires. And although Damon had developed a grudging respect for Bonnie, he wouldn't exactly trust her with a spell like that either. She hated his kind, after all.

Bonnie tried again. "Maybe I can bring her back," she said desperately. Her eyes flashed over to Jeremy. "Like I did for Jeremy. Maybe the other witches will help."

Damon just downed his drink. "It won't work," he muttered, ruthlessly refusing to allow himself any hope.

Caroline glared at him. "Don't be such a pessimist, Damon," she said.

Damon rolled his eyes. "Fine, look through your spell books." His eyes shot over to Jeremy. "Call up your ghost friends. But the fact is, Elena is going to be a vampire and you're all going to have to get used to it." And with those words he grabbed his bottle of bourbon and headed for the kitchen to grieve in peace.

•••••

Finally away from the others, Damon gripped the countertop with crushing force. He closed his eyes, wishing he could block out the whispered conversations in the other room. Wishing he could hear one more heart beat out there.

He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and opened his eyes to meet Aedan's gray ones. "Hey," the older vampire said softly. He stroked his thumb over tense muscles, and Damon started to relax slightly into his touch.

A moment later, Stefan walked into the kitchen, and Damon felt himself tense again as the guilt rushed back in. His little brother looked as devastated as Damon felt. Damon didn't believe it himself, but he tried to offer his brother some form of comfort. "Elena will be okay, Stefan," he said. "We can teach her how to be a vampire. It won't be like it was for us."

Stefan didn't look the least bit comforted. "She never wanted to be a vampire."

Damon sighed. "I know. But at least now the two of you can have forever." He tried for his normal, teasing tone. "Go to high school and college over and over again. Whatever else passes for fun in your life." It was one thing to break down in front of Aedan, but he tried to pull himself together for Stefan's sake.

"I'm not even sure she'll still be Elena without her humanity," Stefan said quietly.

Damon snorted. "Of course she's still Elena. Just new and improved." Damon wasn't sure he really believed that, but he still felt the need to try to cheer Stefan up. "Things are different now than when we were turned. As much as it pains me to say it, Blondie turned out okay." He couldn't believe he had just used Caroline as a positive example of a vampire. But whatever would convince Stefan.

Unfortunately, Stefan looked anything but convinced. In fact, he looked pissed. "Are you going to set yourself up as her role model, Damon? Because that's just rich."

Damon frowned. "I'll do what I can to help her, of course."

Stefan glared at him. "What are you going to teach her – sexual positions? Because that's all you do lately, have sex. It's a wonder we have any furniture or walls left."

Damon flinched, but he tried to keep his voice light. "We haven't broken any walls. And if we do, Aedan will fix them." He glanced over at Aedan, who had taken a step back to let the brothers talk and who now looked uncharacteristically tense himself. He probably realized this conversation was going from bad to ugly.

Stefan ignored Damon's attempt to lighten the mood. "What good have you done in 150 years, Damon?"

Damon had had enough. "Careful, Stefan. Massacred any towns lately? You're living in a glass house, brother. Your body count is higher than mine."

"At least I try, Damon."

Damon hesitated at that, aware that Stefan had a point. Damon had seldom tried to be anything but a monster, and even when he tried, he was well aware that he had fallen short.

"This is your fault!" Stefan suddenly shouted at Damon. "After all your talk about keeping her alive." He flashed across the room and hit Damon, hard, causing the black-haired vampire to stagger. "Sage was there because of you." Another blow landed. "You . . . made . . . me . . . give . . . her . . . my . . . blood." Each word was punctuated by another punch, and Damon didn't even try to fight back. He fell back into the wall as his little brother put all his strength into each blow. Let Stefan get his anger out, Damon thought. It wasn't like he hadn't done enough over the years to deserve a beating, and he had, after all, failed in his promises to keep Elena alive. All his talk about doing whatever it took had proven to be just words in the end. He had failed.

Damon could smell his own blood, and the world was starting to go a little fuzzy. Maybe he should defend himself, he thought vaguely, but he couldn't seem to get his bearings as Stefan's fist connected with the side of his head again.

•••••

More than one cut had opened on Damon's face and his blue eyes had taken on a dazed look. He staggered again, almost falling, and Aedan had had enough. He tore Stefan off of Damon with one hand and tossed the younger vampire across the room. A loud crack sounded as Stefan hit the wall hard.

"Stop it," Aedan ordered. He glared furiously at Stefan where he half-lay against the wall on the other side of the kitchen. "This is not Damon's fault. Take your anger out on the person who deserves it. _Sage_ killed Elena, not Damon." He turned to Damon then, only to find that Damon had sunk down against the wall that Stefan had been pounding him into. His blue eyes were still stunned, and Aedan tried to ignore the blood on Damon's face. The cuts from Stefan's beating were already healing, and it was the broken look in Damon's eyes that scared Aedan. His instinct to protect Damon screamed that he should do far more to Stefan than just throw him across the room, but he forced his anger down. Someone had to keep his head together right now, and apparently he was the only candidate. He brought his hands up to the sides of Damon's face. "This is _not_ your fault," he told Damon.

"All I wanted was to keep her alive," Damon said. His voice and the blue eyes that stared into Aedan's were filled with despair. "I failed her."

Aedan shook his head. "You did everything you could to keep her alive," he told Damon firmly.

He was aware that Stefan was staring at them both, and he could see the guilt on Stefan's face at the sight of his brother bloodied and slumped on the floor. Good, Aedan thought. Stefan _should_ feel guilty. "Damon, I'm sorry," Stefan murmured before Aedan heard him stumble out of the room. He sounded just as broken as Damon looked, but Aedan only really cared about Damon.

Aedan couldn't bring himself to be too upset about Elena's death either. She was just one human, and she would live on as a vampire. In fact, if becoming a vampire meant that her doppelganger blood could no longer be used against his kind, Aedan could see her death as a positive. But Damon was devastated, and it broke Aedan's heart to see Damon so upset.

"Stefan's wrong, you know," he said softly. He stroked Damon's cheek gently, ignoring the blood.

Damon stared straight ahead. His voice was flat, and he looked and sounded exhausted. "Thing is, he's not. Keeping Elena alive was going to be my good deed for the century, and look how that turned out."

Aedan wondered if Stefan had any idea how much his words had hurt Damon. He wished he could remember his own sibling relationships better to know if this was normal, but his humanity was too long ago. The details had long since receded from his mind, and he didn't know how to handle this subdued, broken Damon. He had been frozen in shock when Stefan had attacked and Damon didn't defend himself. "He's wrong," Aedan repeated. "Ever since I've known you, you've done nothing but protect the people you care about. Klaus wasn't after you – you risked your life to kill him and protect Elena. We were safe from the hybrids. We could have gone after them in our own sweet time, and you walked back into danger to help Stefan and Elena. So Stefan is _wrong_."

Damon looked uncertain for a moment, but then he shook his head. "I should have been able to save her," he said.

Aedan frowned, wishing Damon wasn't so stubborn. He needed a new approach to get through to his boyfriend. "Blame me," he blurted out suddenly. "If I hadn't let the witch take her. . . ."

Damon shook his head at that, looking a little more like himself as he met Aedan's eyes. Encouraged, Aedan continued. He let real regret seep into his voice. "If I had been a step faster, I could have at least slowed Sage down long enough for you to get Elena away."

Damon looked shocked at that. "I wouldn't have left you to take on Sage alone. She would have killed you."

"I don't think she would have killed me over something like that, a single human life."

"You sure about that?" Damon asked skeptically.

Aedan shrugged. "Seventy-five percent," he admitted ruefully.

"Not good enough odds," Damon countered. "I'm not going to blame you," he added after a brief pause.

"But you can blame yourself?"

"Yep, it's called martyrdom. Runs in the family." Damon's smile was rueful, but it was there, and Aedan relaxed slightly at the sight.

"I don't understand any of your relationships," Aedan told him. He stroked his hand down the side of Damon's face, pleased when Damon leaned into his touch. He didn't understand Damon letting Stefan beat on him, and he didn't understand why Damon was so very upset at Elena's death. She wasn't even permanently dead – she would become a vampire and live far longer than she would have as a human.

"I'll half-kill Stefan next week," Damon replied by way of explanation, and Aedan shook his head slightly. "I hope you understand _our_ relationship," Damon continued. He still seemed slightly dazed, but his eyes focused worriedly on Aedan with those words.

Aedan had to smile at that. "Yes, that one I get."

"Good," Damon murmured. Unfortunately, Damon's next words were less encouraging. "I need some bourbon," he said. "_A lot _of bourbon. Want to get drunk with me?"

Aedan hesitated. He doubted that was going to help anything, although he supposed it probably wouldn't hurt either. But before he could answer, he heard a gasp from the other room followed by Stefan's voice. "Damon, she's waking up!"


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: **_I know it's been a while, but here's the next chapter. I also haven't had a chance to respond to all your wonderful reviews, but I read and appreciate every one.  
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_In case you've forgotten, in the last couple of chapters, Sage snapped Elena's neck during a rescue attempt, but Elena had vampire blood in her system so when she wakes up, she'll be in transition. Damon is not very happy about this turn of events._

_Hope you like it!_

**Chapter 25**

Damon closed his bedroom door behind him and sank back against it, fighting back tears. He was buzzed, but that was the best he had been able to achieve with all the interruptions to his planned coping strategy. Aedan was sitting on the bed, and Damon noticed that the other vampire had showered and changed. He had slipped out at some point during the drama of Elena waking up, and Damon guessed Aedan felt like an intruder among the Mystic Falls band of idiots. He usually felt that way himself, truthfully. "Did you hear?" he asked softly.

Aedan nodded. "I'm glad," he said.

"She did it for Jeremy. So he won't be alone." Damon wanted to bang his head against the door behind him as images that he was certain would never leave him flashed through his mind. Elena waking up, disheveled and confused. The expression in her huge brown eyes going from denial to horror as Stefan explained what had happened in a low voice. The way she had shoved Stefan away at first before breaking down, sobbing, as she realized the truth. Damon had hung back as she had hugged Stefan and Jeremy and Alaric, then Bonnie and Caroline, her face streaked with tears and her eyes hollow.

Damon was a bit surprised that Elena had made the decision to complete the transition as quickly as she had. Decisiveness had never exactly been her forte, after all. He wondered which of her personality characteristics would be enhanced as a vampire. Her compassion? The selfishness that Damon had finally noticed in the past few months? Her tendency toward martyrdom? Or the inner toughness that had helped her last this long despite everything fate and Mystic Falls had thrown at her? Would she end up like Katherine?

One thing Damon knew was that Elena would never get the chance to grow old. Hell, she would never even get the chance to grow up. Like Stefan, she would be marked forever by a face too young for the way she would want to live. Damon wondered suddenly if that was why his brother went to school so many times, trying desperately to find a place that he fit in the world. _Good luck with that_, Damon thought bitterly. Vampires didn't fit, not anywhere. They were abominations. The witch had been right about that, at least.

And now that would be Elena's lot in death. She would never have kids, if she even still wanted them after the doppelganger fiasco. Damon realized he didn't know. She couldn't have a dog – Stefan would eat it. And Damon supposed his brother would probably start tomorrow to teach Elena to kill defenseless forest animals, too. No white picket fence, because she would have to move every few years before her neighbors realized that she wasn't getting any older. And she would have to watch her little brother grow old and die, which Damon imagined was even worse than watching your little brother as an out-of-control ripper who tore his victims apart and put them back together out of guilt. Damon felt another wave of despair. Even in his most selfish moments, when he thought he couldn't bear to lose her, he hadn't wanted this for Elena, not really. Not now, and not when she didn't want it for herself.

Damon didn't even realize that he hadn't moved from his door until Aedan's voice penetrated his thoughts. "Damon? Are you okay?"

Damon looked up into concerned gray eyes, and he wanted to just say no, he was anything but okay. But he couldn't get the words out, couldn't make himself that vulnerable even to Aedan. He was pretty sure the expression on his face gave him away anyway.

"Come to bed," Aedan said quietly.

At least those words spurred Damon to move. He pushed himself away from the door and shook his head, "I need a shower."

"Do you want company?"

Damon shook his head again. For once in his life, sex was the last thing on his mind. "I'll just be a minute," he said. "You're already clean anyway." It was a poor excuse, but Aedan seemed to accept it because he nodded his assent.

Damon stripped off his clothes onto the floor of his spacious bathroom, noting that someone – presumably Aedan since Damon himself hadn't done it – had cleaned up their ruined clothes from earlier. He felt a spark of gratitude. He hated messes, and sometimes he felt that so much of the past few years had been cleaning up one mess after another. _All for nothing_, he thought bitterly.

Despite his words about being quick, Damon spent more than a few minutes standing under his shower, letting the hot water wash away layers of dirt and blood and beat down on tired muscles. He felt wrung out, utterly exhausted, and he couldn't figure out why he was so very upset. Elena was just a vampire like the rest of them now, and she would be around forever to get on his case every time he slipped up. She would smile and laugh again, hang out with Caroline and make out with Stefan for eternity. Hell, maybe she would even be more fun as a vampire.

But Damon couldn't shake the feeling of failure, the belief that he had let both her and Stefan down. The certain knowledge that Elena hadn't wanted this. The water could cleanse his body, but unfortunately it couldn't wash away Damon's thoughts, and finally he turned it off.

Aedan was still sitting on the bed when Damon came back into the room. His smile was rueful. "For some reason I can only think of clichés," he said. "Would you believe 'it will all be better in the morning'?"

Damon cracked a smile in spite of himself. "Nope," he said. "Too easy for our lives."

"True," Aedan agreed. "By morning we'll probably have a pack of werewolves descending on the house."

Damon shuddered. "Don't even think that. You'll give the universe ideas."

Aedan laughed softly. "I'll keep quiet," he promised. After a moment, he added, "Come to bed. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted."

"Me, too," Damon admitted. That was the only reason why he thought things might actually look better in the morning. Vampires didn't need a lot of sleep, but they needed some, and Damon had practically lost track of when he had last slept. Since then, he had had his brain fried by a witch and had been in three fights – four if you included the one with Stefan.

He also suspected that if he tried to be stubborn and stay awake until he could sort out all of his problems that Aedan would stay awake with him. And Aedan had to be almost as tired as Damon was. Even if Damon couldn't sleep – and he suspected he couldn't, no matter how exhausted his body was – Aedan deserved some rest. So Damon crawled into bed, watching as Aedan stripped off his clothes and folded them neatly before joining Damon. Damon still wasn't in the mood for any of their usual fun, and luckily Aedan seemed to understand that as he so often understood what Damon needed. He drew Damon against his body and kissed him lightly. "Let's get some sleep," he said softly, and Damon nodded.

Aedan relaxed into sleep almost immediately, and Damon lay there listening to his vampire boyfriend's deep breathing and slow heartbeat. Troubled mind or not, he couldn't help feeling a measure of the peace that he always found in Aedan's arms even as a small voice said that Aedan would leave him soon. Now that the novelty was wearing off, Aedan would realize that Damon wasn't worth it, that he was a screw up who had failed at everything that ever mattered. Today was just more proof of that.

Damon tried to pull away as that voice grew louder, but Aedan just murmured his name in his sleep and refused to let go. Damon couldn't exactly break Aedan's grip and he didn't really want to, after all, so he finally just gave in and relaxed back against Aedan's strong body. This time Aedan just purred slightly, a contented sound, and Damon felt a little more of the tension leave his body. He hadn't seen any accusation or blame in Aedan's eyes that day, just regret and acceptance and . . . love. Damon didn't really understand it. He was used to being blamed and punished for his mistakes, from when he was eight and let baby Stefan crawl too close to the fire to when he was eleven and left the gate on the corral open and three of the horses got out. There were too many more cases to count growing up where Damon had felt the lash in exchange for mistakes he had made – or that Stefan had made, because Damon had always tried to take the blame to prevent his little brother from feeling the sting of failure. Each time their father had repeated to Damon that he was a disappointment who would never amount to anything, and Damon had seen that disappointment and blame in his father's eyes as the whip sliced into his back. He was the bad brother, and his mistakes deserved punishment. Only Aedan didn't seem to think today was his fault, and he seemed determined to stick by Damon.

Vampires might not belong anywhere, Damon thought sleepily, but maybe he belonged with Aedan, even if it had taken him a long time to find his place in the world. Minutes later Damon was asleep, too, dragged down by his body's exhaustion and the measure of peace that Aedan's arms offered him.

•••••

Aedan woke early the next morning, pleased to find Damon nestled against him and still fast asleep. Damon had been dead on his feet the previous evening – figuratively as well as literally – but Aedan had been afraid, nonetheless, that the younger vampire might have been too stressed and upset to sleep. He had intended to stay awake long enough to make sure that Damon slept, but his own exhaustion had dragged him under too quickly.

Damon looked so peaceful as he slept, Aedan thought. And so beautiful, with his long dark lashes, high cheekbones, and full sensual lips. But this morning Aedan thought Damon looked sad, too, like sleep couldn't fully conceal the core of pain and self-recrimination that lay inside of him and that the previous day's events had brought to the surface. Aedan was very familiar with those emotions. Being a vampire, living for centuries and killing for centuries, brought far more pain than anyone realized who hadn't experienced it. It was almost funny, Aedan thought ruefully, to hear the witch talk about vampires as monsters like they didn't know what they were. Aedan had made as much peace as he could with it, but that didn't mean the guilt and loneliness weren't always there. He could never entirely block out the knowledge of the things he had done, sometimes to survive and sometimes simply because he could and the world was a cruel place.

But for the past few weeks, Damon drove those feelings and memories away, underground, with his smile, his laugh, his touch. Aedan liked to think that he did the same for Damon. He was certain that they had both been happy in the days before this latest crisis. But that happiness seemed only a memory now. The events of the previous day had swamped the fire that usually burned in Damon, and Aedan didn't know how to bring it back. Even watching Damon relaxed in sleep couldn't entirely shake the image of the devastated, vacant look on the younger vampire's face as he had collapsed against his door the previous night. Aedan wasn't convinced Damon would have moved yet if he hadn't been there to pull his boyfriend out of his thoughts.

He could only hope that a good night's sleep would restore Damon's equilibrium. He accepted – hell, he loved – that Damon was mercurial. Life with Damon would never be boring, and not just because Mystic Falls was apparently doomed to one supernatural crisis after another, but because Damon himself was anything but boring. And Aedan loved that. He could handle Damon's moods, his anger, passion, recklessness. But he had no idea how to handle the subdued, sad Damon that he had seen the night before, broken, all of the fight drained out of him. It broke Aedan's heart to see it.

He leaned over and kissed Damon's shoulder lightly, careful not to wake him. "You're okay," he whispered, as though saying it could make it true. He knew everyone else was worried about Elena and how she would handle being a vampire, but Aedan was mostly worried about Damon. There was only one thing that he could think of that might help fix things, so he drew Damon close and thought about ways to kill Sage.

•••••

The next morning everything seemed right in the world in Damon's first moments of waking. He was curled up in Aedan's arms, not alone, loved and wanted. His body was finally rested again, and his room was quiet and peaceful, a sanctuary for the two of them, even if Damon didn't deserve any such thing.

So for those first, half-awake moments, Damon was happy. Then he remembered the events of the previous day. He remembered that Elena was dead and a vampire. He had failed her completely, and there was no way to fix things. It was too late. Despair washed over him then with all the force of vampire emotions, and he rolled over onto his back, away from Aedan, as the wave of pain hit. Every muscle in his body tensed as Damon fought the urge to destroy something. Or cry.

He felt Aedan stroke a hand gently over the taut muscles of his stomach. "Hey," the older vampire said softly. "It's going to be okay."

Damon struggled to calm his emotions, closing his eyes and forcing himself to take deep breaths. He thought talking might help distract him, but he couldn't pull his mind away from Elena's fate. Finally, he tried voicing this thoughts anyway. "I wonder what Elena will be like as a vampire?" he whispered. "Hopefully nothing like Katherine." It was surprisingly hard for him to imagine Elena as a vampire. Her humanity had been such a big part of why Damon cared for her.

"The world definitely doesn't need two Katherines," Aedan agreed. His fingers slid over Damon's skin as though unwilling to break the physical contact between them.

"Or even one, really," Damon commented, trying to keep his tone light. But his thoughts suddenly went in a different, if no less depressing, direction. "What if she's a ripper, like Stefan?" he asked. He kept his voice as low as possible. Elena didn't have human ears anymore.

"She won't be."

"No one would have guessed Stefan would. I mean Stefan? Really? He lives for his journal, for god's sake." Damon forced a tremulous smile at his own joke. After a moment, he added, "Why wasn't it me? I'm the crazy, out-of-control one." He stared at Aedan, blue eyes wide and pleading for answers.

"No one knows what causes someone to become a ripper," Aedan reminded him. He was still touching Damon, and Damon was glad for it. The warmth of his hand on Damon's stomach provided an anchor against the despair that threatened to overwhelm the younger vampire.

"It could have been my fault," Damon said, voicing a fear that he had held inside for over a hundred years. "I left. I couldn't handle Stefan, and I left. And he never figured it out." Lexi had tried to help him, of course, but her cures had only been temporary. Stefan had always relapsed.

"It wasn't your fault," Aedan said firmly. "You were a new vampire, too. Elena will be fine. No one has ever had so many vampires around to help them." Aedan continued, "We'll take care of her."

That was true, Damon knew, but it was small consolation. Elena had never wanted to be a vampire, and Damon had dedicated himself to saving her for so long. But Aedan was right that there was nothing he could do now, except try to see things through. Despite what Aedan had said yesterday, Damon had seen the accusations in everyone else's eyes. Elena's death was most definitely his fault. Sage wouldn't have even been there if it wasn't for him. Damon frowned as another thought occurred to him, and he propped himself up on one elbow to meet Aedan's gray eyes. "Promise me you won't go after Sage alone."

Aedan's expression barely changed, but Damon saw enough to know that his guess was right. Aedan had been thinking about exactly that.

"Aedan, she's too strong," Damon said. He couldn't bear even the thought of possibly losing Aedan.

"I could catch her by surprise."

"How? She knows you're with me." And suddenly Damon understood something else. "That's why she staked you and tried to convince me you messed with my head – she was testing how solid we were."

Aedan nodded slowly. "Makes sense," he conceded.

"Promise me," Damon said stubbornly. "We'll kill her, but we'll do it together."

Aedan sighed, but he met Damon's eyes directly. "I promise."

Damon nodded. "Good," he said. "Now will you do something else for me?"

Aedan tilted his head, puzzled, but he nodded again.

"Distract me. Fuck me hard," Damon said. He needed to forget for a few minutes, and no one provided a distraction quite like Aedan.

A second later, Aedan was above him, pressing him down into the bed. Aedan kissed him then, and Damon returned the kiss, feeling both love and hunger in the way Aedan's mouth moved on his. It wasn't exactly what Damon had in mind, but he wasn't complaining as his body responded to the sensation of being pinned under Aedan's and the feeling of Aedan's lips and tongue, the heat of his mouth and touch of his hands as the other vampire took his time. It had been far too long since they had done this, taking their time and just kissing. He could feel Aedan's love in the way the other vampire explored his mouth deeply and thoroughly, leaving him gasping for air he didn't need.

Aedan found the most sensitive spot on Damon's neck next, and Damon arched into him with a moan. He wanted Aedan to hurt him, to mix pain and pleasure as a punishment for his failures, but instead Aedan was caressing his body, offering him nothing but intoxicating pleasure. Damon was helpless under his boyfriend's touch as Aedan's hand found his erection even as his mouth moved from one sensitive spot to another. He was trembling by the time Aedan's hot mouth was surrounding his cock, and it didn't take long for him to climax with a string of half-coherent sounds.

Aedan didn't let Damon rest, kissing him again long and hard as his own erection pressed into Damon's body. He took his time stretching Damon out, but finally he pulled Damon's legs up and began driving into him with slow, deep thrusts.

"I love you," Aedan said, voice serious. He shifted Damon slightly to find a new angle and a deeper penetration just as Damon opened his mouth to respond.

"Fuck, Aedan," was all Damon could gasp out as a surge of pleasure flooded his body, driving away any coherent thought. He knew it probably wasn't the best response, but Aedan's smirk of satisfaction told him that his lover was anything but offended. Driving each other crazy was, after all, a favorite pastime for both of them. "Harder," Damon moaned, and Aedan obliged, taking him to the brink as slaps of flesh and sounds of pleasure filled the room.

Just when Damon thought he would tumble over the edge, Aedan shifted them again, drawing Damon with him as he sat up. He was still impaled on Damon, who was now practically sitting in his lap. Aedan's mouth found Damon's, swallowing the younger vampire's squeak of surprise at the new position and kissing him deeply. The intimacy of it brought tears to Damon's eyes. He didn't deserve this, didn't deserve Aedan.

Aedan's hand found his hard cock then, offering a renewed distraction just when Damon needed it. He began to stroke Damon in rhythm with his thrusts, and moments later they came together, voices merging in a loud cry.

Damon felt Aedan pull out of him as they collapsed onto the bed in a messy tangle of limbs and cum. He lay there contentedly, sated, as his own breathing and Aedan's gradually slowed. "You give the best distractions," he murmured.

"Is that what we're calling it now?" Aedan asked, but the flash of humor in his gray eyes told Damon that he knew exactly what Damon meant. He moved to claim another kiss as his answer.

When they finally came up for air, it was Aedan who spoke first. "I suppose we should get up soon." He sounded reluctant.

Damon sighed. "Give me a sec." His muscles still felt like jello, after all, and getting up didn't sound all that appealing to him either. He wanted to hold onto the feeling of pure physical pleasure, keep his mind turned off. Damon wondered what Aedan would say if he suggested a bubble bath right now. Aedan would probably think that he had lost it, Damon thought with a small smile. Too bad he knew that he had lost it by any normal standard a very long time ago. Maybe it was the day Stefan had forced blood down his throat to complete the transition, or the night he had first helped Katherine hunt and kissed her bloody face rather than run screaming. Or before that, when he had puked his guts out after his first battle, so pathetically glad to be alive as he crouched among bloody corpses and the screams of the wounded rang in his ears. Of course, Damon thought ruefully, the smell of blood had still made him sick then, so he probably could have still been considered sane. That hadn't been the case for a century and a half, and now Elena was entering that life.

"I don't want to get up," Damon admitted quietly. "Can we just stay here?" He knew he probably sounded like a child, but he didn't want to deal with everything that the day promised. With vampire Elena and Stefan's accusing looks and ridiculous diet, not to mention coming up with a way to kill Sage. Here, alone with Aedan, was the only peace that Damon was going to find right now.

Damon felt Aedan's soft chuckle. "Sure. We can barricade the door," the older vampire suggested.

It was Damon's turn to laugh at that. "I'm hungry, though," he protested.

This time Aedan chuckled softly. "I can bring you breakfast in bed," he offered. "They probably won't bother me."

Damon smiled again. It was true that neither Stefan nor Elena seemed to really know what to make of Aedan or Damon's relationship with him. Most of the time that was just fine with Damon. "If only," he sighed, resting his body against Aedan's for another long moment. Too bad neither staying in bed nor moving things to the bathtub was really an option. Finally, he forced himself to move. "Shower and breakfast?" he said as he sat up.

Aedan nodded. He stood up and followed Damon toward the bathroom. "Just for the record, I prefer your first idea of staying in bed all day."

Damon laughed again.


End file.
